Antenna Port Determination Based on Maximum Number of Transmission Layers of Bandwidth Part

ABSTRACT

A base station may transmit configuration parameters indicating a bandwidth part (BWP), of a cell, associated with a maximum number of transmission layers, and a plurality of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports. The base station may transmit downlink control information comprising an antenna port indication value. The base station may determine a subset of DMRS ports, from the plurality of DMRS ports, based on the maximum number of transmission layers associated with the BWP. Based on the antenna port indication value, the base station may select one or more DMRS ports from the subset of DMRS ports. The base station may transmit, via the BWP, a transport block with the one or more selected DMRS ports and with a number of transmission layers. The number may be less than or equal to the maximum number in response to the BWP being associated with the maximum number of transmission layers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.17/093,379, filed Nov. 9, 2020, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/932,075, filed Nov. 7, 2019, all of whichare hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Examples of several of the various embodiments of the present disclosureare described herein with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B illustrate example mobile communication networks inwhich embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B respectively illustrate a New Radio (NR) user planeand control plane protocol stack.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of services provided between protocollayers of the NR user plane protocol stack of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example downlink data flow through the NR userplane protocol stack of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example format of a MAC subheader in a MAC PDU.

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B respectively illustrate a mapping between logicalchannels, transport channels, and physical channels for the downlink anduplink.

FIG. 6 is an example diagram showing RRC state transitions of a UE.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example configuration of an NR frame into whichOFDM symbols are grouped.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example configuration of a slot in the time andfrequency domain for an NR carrier.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of bandwidth adaptation using threeconfigured BWPs for an NR carrier.

FIG. 10A illustrates three carrier aggregation configurations with twocomponent carriers.

FIG. 10B illustrates an example of how aggregated cells may beconfigured into one or more PUCCH groups.

FIG. 11A illustrates an example of an SS/PBCH block structure andlocation.

FIG. 11B illustrates an example of CSI-RSs that are mapped in the timeand frequency domains.

FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B respectively illustrate examples of three downlinkand uplink beam management procedures.

FIG. 13A, FIG. 13B, and FIG. 13C respectively illustrate a four-stepcontention-based random access procedure, a two-step contention-freerandom access procedure, and another two-step random access procedure.

FIG. 14A illustrates an example of CORESET configurations for abandwidth part.

FIG. 14B illustrates an example of a CCE-to-REG mapping for DCItransmission on a CORESET and PDCCH processing.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a wireless device in communicationwith a base station.

FIG. 16A, FIG. 16B, FIG. 16C, and FIG. 16D illustrate example structuresfor uplink and downlink transmission.

FIG. 17A and FIG. 17B illustrate example parameters for DMRS as per anaspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 18 illustrates example parameters for DMRS as per an aspect of anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 19 illustrates example parameters for DMRS as per an aspect of anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 20 illustrates an example of DMRS time index and antenna ports asper an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 21 illustrates an example DMRS pattern as per an aspect of anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 22 illustrates an example DMRS pattern as per an aspect of anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 23 illustrates an example DMRS pattern as per an aspect of anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 24 illustrates an example DMRS pattern as per an aspect of anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 25 illustrates an example of antenna port(s) indication of DMRS asper an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 26 illustrates an example of antenna port(s) indication of DMRS asper an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 27 illustrates an example of antenna port(s) indication of DMRS asper an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 28 illustrates an example of antenna port(s) indication of DMRS asper an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 29 illustrates an example of antenna port(s) indication of DMRS asper an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 30 illustrates an example of DMRS antenna port(s) indication as peran aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 31 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for DMRS antennaport(s) indication as per an aspect of an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 32 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for DMRS antennaport(s) indication as per an aspect of an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 33 illustrates an example of activation and deactivation of DMRSvalues as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 34 illustrates an example of activation and deactivation of DMRSvalues as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 35 illustrates an example of activation and deactivation of rows ina DMRS antenna port(s) indication table as per an aspect of anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 36 illustrates an example of activation and deactivation of rows ina DMRS antenna port(s) indication table as per an aspect of anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 37A and FIG. 37B illustrate examples of DMRS antenna port(s)indication as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 38 illustrates an example of DMRS antenna port(s) indication as peran aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 39 illustrates an example of DMRS antenna port(s) indication as peran aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 40A and FIG. 40B illustrate examples of DMRS antenna port(s)indication as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 41A and FIG. 41B illustrate examples of DMRS antenna port(s)indication as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 42 is a flowchart of an example method for DMRS antenna port(s)indication as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the present disclosure, various embodiments are presented as examplesof how the disclosed techniques may be implemented and/or how thedisclosed techniques may be practiced in environments and scenarios. Itwill be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art that variouschanges in form and detail can be made therein without departing fromthe scope. In fact, after reading the description, it will be apparentto one skilled in the relevant art how to implement alternativeembodiments. The present embodiments should not be limited by any of thedescribed exemplary embodiments. The embodiments of the presentdisclosure will be described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings. Limitations, features, and/or elements from the disclosedexample embodiments may be combined to create further embodiments withinthe scope of the disclosure. Any figures which highlight thefunctionality and advantages, are presented for example purposes only.The disclosed architecture is sufficiently flexible and configurable,such that it may be utilized in ways other than that shown. For example,the actions listed in any flowchart may be re-ordered or only optionallyused in some embodiments.

Embodiments may be configured to operate as needed. The disclosedmechanism may be performed when certain criteria are met, for example,in a wireless device, a base station, a radio environment, a network, acombination of the above, and/or the like. Example criteria may bebased, at least in part, on for example, wireless device or network nodeconfigurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes,traffic characteristics, a combination of the above, and/or the like.When the one or more criteria are met, various example embodiments maybe applied. Therefore, it may be possible to implement exampleembodiments that selectively implement disclosed protocols.

A base station may communicate with a mix of wireless devices. Wirelessdevices and/or base stations may support multiple technologies, and/ormultiple releases of the same technology. Wireless devices may have somespecific capability(ies) depending on wireless device category and/orcapability(ies). When this disclosure refers to a base stationcommunicating with a plurality of wireless devices, this disclosure mayrefer to a subset of the total wireless devices in a coverage area. Thisdisclosure may refer to, for example, a plurality of wireless devices ofa given LTE or 5G release with a given capability and in a given sectorof the base station. The plurality of wireless devices in thisdisclosure may refer to a selected plurality of wireless devices, and/ora subset of total wireless devices in a coverage area which performaccording to disclosed methods, and/or the like. There may be aplurality of base stations or a plurality of wireless devices in acoverage area that may not comply with the disclosed methods, forexample, those wireless devices or base stations may perform based onolder releases of LTE or 5G technology.

In this disclosure, “a” and “an” and similar phrases are to beinterpreted as “at least one” and “one or more.” Similarly, any termthat ends with the suffix “(s)” is to be interpreted as “at least one”and “one or more.” In this disclosure, the term “may” is to beinterpreted as “may, for example.” In other words, the term “may” isindicative that the phrase following the term “may” is an example of oneof a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, beemployed by one or more of the various embodiments. The terms“comprises” and “consists of”, as used herein, enumerate one or morecomponents of the element being described. The term “comprises” isinterchangeable with “includes” and does not exclude unenumeratedcomponents from being included in the element being described. Bycontrast, “consists of” provides a complete enumeration of the one ormore components of the element being described. The term “based on”, asused herein, should be interpreted as “based at least in part on” ratherthan, for example, “based solely on”. The term “and/or” as used hereinrepresents any possible combination of enumerated elements. For example,“A, B, and/or C” may represent A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; or A,B, and C.

If A and B are sets and every element of A is an element of B, A iscalled a subset of B. In this specification, only non-empty sets andsubsets are considered. For example, possible subsets of B={cell1,cell2} are: {cell1}, {cell2}, and {cell1, cell2}. The phrase “based on”(or equally “based at least on”) is indicative that the phrase followingthe term “based on” is an example of one of a multitude of suitablepossibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of thevarious embodiments. The phrase “in response to” (or equally “inresponse at least to”) is indicative that the phrase following thephrase “in response to” is an example of one of a multitude of suitablepossibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of thevarious embodiments. The phrase “depending on” (or equally “depending atleast to”) is indicative that the phrase following the phrase “dependingon” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities thatmay, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments.The phrase “employing/using” (or equally “employing/using at least”) isindicative that the phrase following the phrase “employing/using” is anexample of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or maynot, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments.

The term configured may relate to the capacity of a device whether thedevice is in an operational or non-operational state. Configured mayrefer to specific settings in a device that effect the operationalcharacteristics of the device whether the device is in an operational ornon-operational state. In other words, the hardware, software, firmware,registers, memory values, and/or the like may be “configured” within adevice, whether the device is in an operational or nonoperational state,to provide the device with specific characteristics. Terms such as “acontrol message to cause in a device” may mean that a control messagehas parameters that may be used to configure specific characteristics ormay be used to implement certain actions in the device, whether thedevice is in an operational or non-operational state.

In this disclosure, parameters (or equally called, fields, orInformation elements: IEs) may comprise one or more information objects,and an information object may comprise one or more other objects. Forexample, if parameter (IE) N comprises parameter (IE) M, and parameter(IE) M comprises parameter (IE) K, and parameter (IE) K comprisesparameter (information element) J. Then, for example, N comprises K, andN comprises J. In an example embodiment, when one or more messagescomprise a plurality of parameters, it implies that a parameter in theplurality of parameters is in at least one of the one or more messages,but does not have to be in each of the one or more messages.

Many features presented are described as being optional through the useof “may” or the use of parentheses. For the sake of brevity andlegibility, the present disclosure does not explicitly recite each andevery permutation that may be obtained by choosing from the set ofoptional features. The present disclosure is to be interpreted asexplicitly disclosing all such permutations. For example, a systemdescribed as having three optional features may be embodied in sevenways, namely with just one of the three possible features, with any twoof the three possible features or with three of the three possiblefeatures.

Many of the elements described in the disclosed embodiments may beimplemented as modules. A module is defined here as an element thatperforms a defined function and has a defined interface to otherelements. The modules described in this disclosure may be implemented inhardware, software in combination with hardware, firmware, wetware (e.g.hardware with a biological element) or a combination thereof, which maybe behaviorally equivalent. For example, modules may be implemented as asoftware routine written in a computer language configured to beexecuted by a hardware machine (such as C, C++, Fortran, Java, Basic,Matlab or the like) or a modeling/simulation program such as Simulink,Stateflow, GNU Octave, or Lab VIEWMathScript. It may be possible toimplement modules using physical hardware that incorporates discrete orprogrammable analog, digital and/or quantum hardware. Examples ofprogrammable hardware comprise: computers, microcontrollers,microprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs); fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGAs); and complex programmable logic devices(CPLDs). Computers, microcontrollers and microprocessors are programmedusing languages such as assembly, C, C++ or the like. FPGAs, ASICs andCPLDs are often programmed using hardware description languages (HDL)such as VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) or Verilog thatconfigure connections between internal hardware modules with lesserfunctionality on a programmable device. The mentioned technologies areoften used in combination to achieve the result of a functional module.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example of a mobile communication network 100 inwhich embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. Themobile communication network 100 may be, for example, a public landmobile network (PLMN) run by a network operator. As illustrated in FIG.1A, the mobile communication network 100 includes a core network (CN)102, a radio access network (RAN) 104, and a wireless device 106.

The CN 102 may provide the wireless device 106 with an interface to oneor more data networks (DNs), such as public DNs (e.g., the Internet),private DNs, and/or intra-operator DNs. As part of the interfacefunctionality, the CN 102 may set up end-to-end connections between thewireless device 106 and the one or more DNs, authenticate the wirelessdevice 106, and provide charging functionality.

The RAN 104 may connect the CN 102 to the wireless device 106 throughradio communications over an air interface. As part of the radiocommunications, the RAN 104 may provide scheduling, radio resourcemanagement, and retransmission protocols. The communication directionfrom the RAN 104 to the wireless device 106 over the air interface isknown as the downlink and the communication direction from the wirelessdevice 106 to the RAN 104 over the air interface is known as the uplink.Downlink transmissions may be separated from uplink transmissions usingfrequency division duplexing (FDD), time-division duplexing (TDD),and/or some combination of the two duplexing techniques.

The term wireless device may be used throughout this disclosure to referto and encompass any mobile device or fixed (non-mobile) device forwhich wireless communication is needed or usable. For example, awireless device may be a telephone, smart phone, tablet, computer,laptop, sensor, meter, wearable device, Internet of Things (IoT) device,vehicle road side unit (RSU), relay node, automobile, and/or anycombination thereof. The term wireless device encompasses otherterminology, including user equipment (UE), user terminal (UT), accessterminal (AT), mobile station, handset, wireless transmit and receiveunit (WTRU), and/or wireless communication device.

The RAN 104 may include one or more base stations (not shown). The termbase station may be used throughout this disclosure to refer to andencompass a Node B (associated with UMTS and/or 3G standards), anEvolved Node B (eNB, associated with E-UTRA and/or 4G standards), aremote radio head (RRH), a baseband processing unit coupled to one ormore RRHs, a repeater node or relay node used to extend the coveragearea of a donor node, a Next Generation Evolved Node B (ng-eNB), aGeneration Node B (gNB, associated with NR and/or 5G standards), anaccess point (AP, associated with, for example, WiFi or any othersuitable wireless communication standard), and/or any combinationthereof. A base station may comprise at least one gNB Central Unit(gNB-CU) and at least one a gNB Distributed Unit (gNB-DU).

A base station included in the RAN 104 may include one or more sets ofantennas for communicating with the wireless device 106 over the airinterface. For example, one or more of the base stations may includethree sets of antennas to respectively control three cells (or sectors).The size of a cell may be determined by a range at which a receiver(e.g., a base station receiver) can successfully receive thetransmissions from a transmitter (e.g., a wireless device transmitter)operating in the cell. Together, the cells of the base stations mayprovide radio coverage to the wireless device 106 over a wide geographicarea to support wireless device mobility.

In addition to three-sector sites, other implementations of basestations are possible. For example, one or more of the base stations inthe RAN 104 may be implemented as a sectored site with more or less thanthree sectors. One or more of the base stations in the RAN 104 may beimplemented as an access point, as a baseband processing unit coupled toseveral remote radio heads (RRHs), and/or as a repeater or relay nodeused to extend the coverage area of a donor node. A baseband processingunit coupled to RRHs may be part of a centralized or cloud RANarchitecture, where the baseband processing unit may be eithercentralized in a pool of baseband processing units or virtualized. Arepeater node may amplify and rebroadcast a radio signal received from adonor node. A relay node may perform the same/similar functions as arepeater node but may decode the radio signal received from the donornode to remove noise before amplifying and rebroadcasting the radiosignal.

The RAN 104 may be deployed as a homogenous network of macrocell basestations that have similar antenna patterns and similar high-leveltransmit powers. The RAN 104 may be deployed as a heterogeneous network.In heterogeneous networks, small cell base stations may be used toprovide small coverage areas, for example, coverage areas that overlapwith the comparatively larger coverage areas provided by macrocell basestations. The small coverage areas may be provided in areas with highdata traffic (or so-called “hotspots”) or in areas with weak macrocellcoverage. Examples of small cell base stations include, in order ofdecreasing coverage area, microcell base stations, picocell basestations, and femtocell base stations or home base stations.

The Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was formed in 1998 toprovide global standardization of specifications for mobilecommunication networks similar to the mobile communication network 100in FIG. 1A. To date, 3GPP has produced specifications for threegenerations of mobile networks: a third generation (3G) network known asUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a fourth generation(4G) network known as Long-Term Evolution (LTE), and a fifth generation(5G) network known as 5G System (5GS). Embodiments of the presentdisclosure are described with reference to the RAN of a 3GPP 5G network,referred to as next-generation RAN (NG-RAN). Embodiments may beapplicable to RANs of other mobile communication networks, such as theRAN 104 in FIG. 1A, the RANs of earlier 3G and 4G networks, and those offuture networks yet to be specified (e.g., a 3GPP 6G network). NG-RANimplements 5G radio access technology known as New Radio (NR) and may beprovisioned to implement 4G radio access technology or other radioaccess technologies, including non-3GPP radio access technologies.

FIG. 1B illustrates another example mobile communication network 150 inwhich embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. Mobilecommunication network 150 may be, for example, a PLMN run by a networkoperator. As illustrated in FIG. 1B, mobile communication network 150includes a 5G core network (5G-CN) 152, an NG-RAN 154, and UEs 156A and156B (collectively UEs 156). These components may be implemented andoperate in the same or similar manner as corresponding componentsdescribed with respect to FIG. 1A.

The 5G-CN 152 provides the UEs 156 with an interface to one or more DNs,such as public DNs (e.g., the Internet), private DNs, and/orintra-operator DNs. As part of the interface functionality, the 5G-CN152 may set up end-to-end connections between the UEs 156 and the one ormore DNs, authenticate the UEs 156, and provide charging functionality.Compared to the CN of a 3GPP 4G network, the basis of the 5G-CN 152 maybe a service-based architecture. This means that the architecture of thenodes making up the 5G-CN 152 may be defined as network functions thatoffer services via interfaces to other network functions. The networkfunctions of the 5G-CN 152 may be implemented in several ways, includingas network elements on dedicated or shared hardware, as softwareinstances running on dedicated or shared hardware, or as virtualizedfunctions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud-based platform).

As illustrated in FIG. 1B, the 5G-CN 152 includes an Access and MobilityManagement Function (AMF) 158A and a User Plane Function (UPF) 158B,which are shown as one component AMF/UPF 158 in FIG. 1B for ease ofillustration. The UPF 158B may serve as a gateway between the NG-RAN 154and the one or more DNs. The UPF 158B may perform functions such aspacket routing and forwarding, packet inspection and user plane policyrule enforcement, traffic usage reporting, uplink classification tosupport routing of traffic flows to the one or more DNs, quality ofservice (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering,gating, uplink/downlink rate enforcement, and uplink trafficverification), downlink packet buffering, and downlink data notificationtriggering. The UPF 158B may serve as an anchor point forintra-/inter-Radio Access Technology (RAT) mobility, an externalprotocol (or packet) data unit (PDU) session point of interconnect tothe one or more DNs, and/or a branching point to support a multi-homedPDU session. The UEs 156 may be configured to receive services through aPDU session, which is a logical connection between a UE and a DN.

The AMF 158A may perform functions such as Non-Access Stratum (NAS)signaling termination, NAS signaling security, Access Stratum (AS)security control, inter-CN node signaling for mobility between 3GPPaccess networks, idle mode UE reachability (e.g., control and executionof paging retransmission), registration area management, intra-systemand inter-system mobility support, access authentication, accessauthorization including checking of roaming rights, mobility managementcontrol (subscription and policies), network slicing support, and/orsession management function (SMF) selection. NAS may refer to thefunctionality operating between a CN and a UE, and AS may refer to thefunctionality operating between the UE and a RAN.

The 5G-CN 152 may include one or more additional network functions thatare not shown in FIG. 1B for the sake of clarity. For example, the 5G-CN152 may include one or more of a Session Management Function (SMF), anNR Repository Function (NRF), a Policy Control Function (PCF), a NetworkExposure Function (NEF), a Unified Data Management (UDM), an ApplicationFunction (AF), and/or an Authentication Server Function (AUSF).

The NG-RAN 154 may connect the 5G-CN 152 to the UEs 156 through radiocommunications over the air interface. The NG-RAN 154 may include one ormore gNBs, illustrated as gNB 160A and gNB 160B (collectively gNBs 160)and/or one or more ng-eNBs, illustrated as ng-eNB 162A and ng-eNB 162B(collectively ng-eNBs 162). The gNBs 160 and ng-eNBs 162 may be moregenerically referred to as base stations. The gNBs 160 and ng-eNBs 162may include one or more sets of antennas for communicating with the UEs156 over an air interface. For example, one or more of the gNBs 160and/or one or more of the ng-eNBs 162 may include three sets of antennasto respectively control three cells (or sectors). Together, the cells ofthe gNBs 160 and the ng-eNBs 162 may provide radio coverage to the UEs156 over a wide geographic area to support UE mobility.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the gNBs 160 and/or the ng-eNBs 162 may beconnected to the 5G-CN 152 by means of an NG interface and to other basestations by an Xn interface. The NG and Xn interfaces may be establishedusing direct physical connections and/or indirect connections over anunderlying transport network, such as an internet protocol (IP)transport network. The gNBs 160 and/or the ng-eNBs 162 may be connectedto the UEs 156 by means of a Uu interface. For example, as illustratedin FIG. 1B, gNB 160A may be connected to the UE 156A by means of a Uuinterface. The NG, Xn, and Uu interfaces are associated with a protocolstack. The protocol stacks associated with the interfaces may be used bythe network elements in FIG. 1B to exchange data and signaling messagesand may include two planes: a user plane and a control plane. The userplane may handle data of interest to a user. The control plane mayhandle signaling messages of interest to the network elements.

The gNBs 160 and/or the ng-eNBs 162 may be connected to one or moreAMF/UPF functions of the 5G-CN 152, such as the AMF/UPF 158, by means ofone or more NG interfaces. For example, the gNB 160A may be connected tothe UPF 158B of the AMF/UPF 158 by means of an NG-User plane (NG-U)interface. The NG-U interface may provide delivery (e.g., non-guaranteeddelivery) of user plane PDUs between the gNB 160A and the UPF 158B. ThegNB 160A may be connected to the AMF 158A by means of an NG-Controlplane (NG-C) interface. The NG-C interface may provide, for example, NGinterface management, UE context management, UE mobility management,transport of NAS messages, paging, PDU session management, andconfiguration transfer and/or warning message transmission.

The gNBs 160 may provide NR user plane and control plane protocolterminations towards the UEs 156 over the Uu interface. For example, thegNB 160A may provide NR user plane and control plane protocolterminations toward the UE 156A over a Uu interface associated with afirst protocol stack. The ng-eNBs 162 may provide Evolved UMTSTerrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocolterminations towards the UEs 156 over a Uu interface, where E-UTRArefers to the 3GPP 4G radio-access technology. For example, the ng-eNB162B may provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocolterminations towards the UE 156B over a Uu interface associated with asecond protocol stack.

The 5G-CN 152 was described as being configured to handle NR and 4Gradio accesses. It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in theart that it may be possible for NR to connect to a 4G core network in amode known as “non-standalone operation.” In non-standalone operation, a4G core network is used to provide (or at least support) control-planefunctionality (e.g., initial access, mobility, and paging). Althoughonly one AMF/UPF 158 is shown in FIG. 1B, one gNB or ng-eNB may beconnected to multiple AMF/UPF nodes to provide redundancy and/or to loadshare across the multiple AMF/UPF nodes.

As discussed, an interface (e.g., Uu, Xn, and NG interfaces) between thenetwork elements in FIG. 1B may be associated with a protocol stack thatthe network elements use to exchange data and signaling messages. Aprotocol stack may include two planes: a user plane and a control plane.The user plane may handle data of interest to a user, and the controlplane may handle signaling messages of interest to the network elements.

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B respectively illustrate examples of NR user planeand NR control plane protocol stacks for the Uu interface that liesbetween a UE 210 and a gNB 220. The protocol stacks illustrated in FIG.2A and FIG. 2B may be the same or similar to those used for the Uuinterface between, for example, the UE 156A and the gNB 160A shown inFIG. 1B.

FIG. 2A illustrates a NR user plane protocol stack comprising fivelayers implemented in the UE 210 and the gNB 220. At the bottom of theprotocol stack, physical layers (PHYs) 211 and 221 may provide transportservices to the higher layers of the protocol stack and may correspondto layer 1 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. The nextfour protocols above PHYs 211 and 221 comprise media access controllayers (MACs) 212 and 222, radio link control layers (RLCs) 213 and 223,packet data convergence protocol layers (PDCPs) 214 and 224, and servicedata application protocol layers (SDAPs) 215 and 225. Together, thesefour protocols may make up layer 2, or the data link layer, of the OSImodel.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of services provided between protocollayers of the NR user plane protocol stack. Starting from the top ofFIG. 2A and FIG. 3 , the SDAPs 215 and 225 may perform QoS flowhandling. The UE 210 may receive services through a PDU session, whichmay be a logical connection between the UE 210 and a DN. The PDU sessionmay have one or more QoS flows. A UPF of a CN (e.g., the UPF 158B) maymap IP packets to the one or more QoS flows of the PDU session based onQoS requirements (e.g., in terms of delay, data rate, and/or errorrate). The SDAPs 215 and 225 may perform mapping/de-mapping between theone or more QoS flows and one or more data radio bearers. Themapping/de-mapping between the QoS flows and the data radio bearers maybe determined by the SDAP 225 at the gNB 220. The SDAP 215 at the UE 210may be informed of the mapping between the QoS flows and the data radiobearers through reflective mapping or control signaling received fromthe gNB 220. For reflective mapping, the SDAP 225 at the gNB 220 maymark the downlink packets with a QoS flow indicator (QFI), which may beobserved by the SDAP 215 at the UE 210 to determine themapping/de-mapping between the QoS flows and the data radio bearers.

The PDCPs 214 and 224 may perform header compression/decompression toreduce the amount of data that needs to be transmitted over the airinterface, ciphering/deciphering to prevent unauthorized decoding ofdata transmitted over the air interface, and integrity protection (toensure control messages originate from intended sources. The PDCPs 214and 224 may perform retransmissions of undelivered packets, in-sequencedelivery and reordering of packets, and removal of packets received induplicate due to, for example, an intra-gNB handover. The PDCPs 214 and224 may perform packet duplication to improve the likelihood of thepacket being received and, at the receiver, remove any duplicatepackets. Packet duplication may be useful for services that require highreliability.

Although not shown in FIG. 3 , PDCPs 214 and 224 may performmapping/de-mapping between a split radio bearer and RLC channels in adual connectivity scenario. Dual connectivity is a technique that allowsa UE to connect to two cells or, more generally, two cell groups: amaster cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG). A split beareris when a single radio bearer, such as one of the radio bearers providedby the PDCPs 214 and 224 as a service to the SDAPs 215 and 225, ishandled by cell groups in dual connectivity. The PDCPs 214 and 224 maymap/de-map the split radio bearer between RLC channels belonging to cellgroups.

The RLCs 213 and 223 may perform segmentation, retransmission throughAutomatic Repeat Request (ARQ), and removal of duplicate data unitsreceived from MACs 212 and 222, respectively. The RLCs 213 and 223 maysupport three transmission modes: transparent mode (TM); unacknowledgedmode (UM); and acknowledged mode (AM). Based on the transmission mode anRLC is operating, the RLC may perform one or more of the notedfunctions. The RLC configuration may be per logical channel with nodependency on numerologies and/or Transmission Time Interval (TTI)durations. As shown in FIG. 3 , the RLCs 213 and 223 may provide RLCchannels as a service to PDCPs 214 and 224, respectively.

The MACs 212 and 222 may perform multiplexing/demultiplexing of logicalchannels and/or mapping between logical channels and transport channels.The multiplexing/demultiplexing may include multiplexing/demultiplexingof data units, belonging to the one or more logical channels, into/fromTransport Blocks (TBs) delivered to/from the PHYs 211 and 221. The MAC222 may be configured to perform scheduling, scheduling informationreporting, and priority handling between UEs by means of dynamicscheduling. Scheduling may be performed in the gNB 220 (at the MAC 222)for downlink and uplink. The MACs 212 and 222 may be configured toperform error correction through Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ)(e.g., one HARQ entity per carrier in case of Carrier Aggregation (CA)),priority handling between logical channels of the UE 210 by means oflogical channel prioritization, and/or padding. The MACs 212 and 222 maysupport one or more numerologies and/or transmission timings. In anexample, mapping restrictions in a logical channel prioritization maycontrol which numerology and/or transmission timing a logical channelmay use. As shown in FIG. 3 , the MACs 212 and 222 may provide logicalchannels as a service to the RLCs 213 and 223.

The PHYs 211 and 221 may perform mapping of transport channels tophysical channels and digital and analog signal processing functions forsending and receiving information over the air interface. These digitaland analog signal processing functions may include, for example,coding/decoding and modulation/demodulation. The PHYs 211 and 221 mayperform multi-antenna mapping. As shown in FIG. 3 , the PHYs 211 and 221may provide one or more transport channels as a service to the MACs 212and 222.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example downlink data flow through the NR userplane protocol stack. FIG. 4A illustrates a downlink data flow of threeIP packets (n, n+1, and m) through the NR user plane protocol stack togenerate two TBs at the gNB 220. An uplink data flow through the NR userplane protocol stack may be similar to the downlink data flow depictedin FIG. 4A.

The downlink data flow of FIG. 4A begins when SDAP 225 receives thethree IP packets from one or more QoS flows and maps the three packetsto radio bearers. In FIG. 4A, the SDAP 225 maps IP packets n and n+1 toa first radio bearer 402 and maps IP packet m to a second radio bearer404. An SDAP header (labeled with an “H” in FIG. 4A) is added to an IPpacket. The data unit from/to a higher protocol layer is referred to asa service data unit (SDU) of the lower protocol layer and the data unitto/from a lower protocol layer is referred to as a protocol data unit(PDU) of the higher protocol layer. As shown in FIG. 4A, the data unitfrom the SDAP 225 is an SDU of lower protocol layer PDCP 224 and is aPDU of the SDAP 225.

The remaining protocol layers in FIG. 4A may perform their associatedfunctionality (e.g., with respect to FIG. 3 ), add correspondingheaders, and forward their respective outputs to the next lower layer.For example, the PDCP 224 may perform IP-header compression andciphering and forward its output to the RLC 223. The RLC 223 mayoptionally perform segmentation (e.g., as shown for IP packet m in FIG.4A) and forward its output to the MAC 222. The MAC 222 may multiplex anumber of RLC PDUs and may attach a MAC subheader to an RLC PDU to forma transport block. In NR, the MAC subheaders may be distributed acrossthe MAC PDU, as illustrated in FIG. 4A. In LTE, the MAC subheaders maybe entirely located at the beginning of the MAC PDU. The NR MAC

PDU structure may reduce processing time and associated latency becausethe MAC PDU subheaders may be computed before the full MAC PDU isassembled.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example format of a MAC subheader in a MAC PDU.The MAC subheader includes: an SDU length field for indicating thelength (e.g., in bytes) of the MAC SDU to which the MAC subheadercorresponds; a logical channel identifier (LCID) field for identifyingthe logical channel from which the MAC SDU originated to aid in thedemultiplexing process; a flag (F) for indicating the size of the SDUlength field; and a reserved bit (R) field for future use.

FIG. 4B further illustrates MAC control elements (CEs) inserted into theMAC PDU by a MAC, such as MAC 223 or MAC 222. For example, FIG. 4Billustrates two MAC CEs inserted into the MAC PDU. MAC CEs may beinserted at the beginning of a MAC PDU for downlink transmissions (asshown in FIG. 4B) and at the end of a MAC PDU for uplink transmissions.MAC CEs may be used for in-band control signaling. Example MAC CEsinclude: scheduling-related MAC CEs, such as buffer status reports andpower headroom reports; activation/deactivation MAC CEs, such as thosefor activation/deactivation of PDCP duplication detection, channel stateinformation (CSI) reporting, sounding reference signal (SRS)transmission, and prior configured components; discontinuous reception(DRX) related MAC CEs; timing advance MAC CEs; and random access relatedMAC CEs. A MAC CE may be preceded by a MAC subheader with a similarformat as described for MAC SDUs and may be identified with a reservedvalue in the LCD field that indicates the type of control informationincluded in the MAC CE.

Before describing the NR control plane protocol stack, logical channels,transport channels, and physical channels are first described as well asa mapping between the channel types. One or more of the channels may beused to carry out functions associated with the NR control planeprotocol stack described later below.

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B illustrate, for downlink and uplink respectively, amapping between logical channels, transport channels, and physicalchannels. Information is passed through channels between the RLC, theMAC, and the PHY of the NR protocol stack. A logical channel may be usedbetween the RLC and the MAC and may be classified as a control channelthat carries control and configuration information in the NR controlplane or as a traffic channel that carries data in the NR user plane. Alogical channel may be classified as a dedicated logical channel that isdedicated to a specific UE or as a common logical channel that may beused by more than one UE. A logical channel may also be defined by thetype of information it carries. The set of logical channels defined byNR include, for example:

-   -   a paging control channel (PCCH) for carrying paging messages        used to page a UE whose location is not known to the network on        a cell level;    -   a broadcast control channel (BCCH) for carrying system        information messages in the form of a master information block        (MIB) and several system information blocks (SIBs), wherein the        system information messages may be used by the UEs to obtain        information about how a cell is configured and how to operate        within the cell;    -   a common control channel (CCCH) for carrying control messages        together with random access;    -   a dedicated control channel (DCCH) for carrying control messages        to/from a specific the UE to configure the UE; and    -   a dedicated traffic channel (DTCH) for carrying user data        to/from a specific the UE.

Transport channels are used between the MAC and PHY layers and may bedefined by how the information they carry is transmitted over the airinterface. The set of transport channels defined by NR include, forexample:

-   -   a paging channel (PCH) for carrying paging messages that        originated from the PCCH;    -   a broadcast channel (BCH) for carrying the MIB from the BCCH;    -   a downlink shared channel (DL-SCH) for carrying downlink data        and signaling messages, including the SIBs from the BCCH;    -   an uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) for carrying uplink data and        signaling messages; and    -   a random access channel (RACH) for allowing a UE to contact the        network without any prior scheduling.

The PHY may use physical channels to pass information between processinglevels of the PHY. A physical channel may have an associated set oftime-frequency resources for carrying the information of one or moretransport channels. The PHY may generate control information to supportthe low-level operation of the PHY and provide the control informationto the lower levels of the PHY via physical control channels, known asL1/L2 control channels. The set of physical channels and physicalcontrol channels defined by NR include, for example:

-   -   a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) for carrying the MIB from        the BCH;    -   a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for carrying downlink        data and signaling messages from the DL-SCH, as well as paging        messages from the PCH;    -   a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for carrying        downlink control information (DCI), which may include downlink        scheduling commands, uplink scheduling grants, and uplink power        control commands;    -   a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for carrying uplink        data and signaling messages from the UL-SCH and in some        instances uplink control information (UCI) as described below;    -   a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for carrying UCI,        which may include HARQ acknowledgments, channel quality        indicators (CQI), pre-coding matrix indicators (PMI), rank        indicators (RI), and scheduling requests (SR); and    -   a physical random access channel (PRACH) for random access.

Similar to the physical control channels, the physical layer generatesphysical signals to support the low-level operation of the physicallayer. As shown in FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B, the physical layer signalsdefined by NR include: primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondarysynchronization signals (SSS), channel state information referencesignals (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS), soundingreference signals (SRS), and phase-tracking reference signals (PT-RS).These physical layer signals will be described in greater detail below.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example NR control plane protocol stack. As shownin FIG. 2B, the NR control plane protocol stack may use the same/similarfirst four protocol layers as the example NR user plane protocol stack.These four protocol layers include the PHYs 211 and 221, the MACs 212and 222, the RLCs 213 and 223, and the PDCPs 214 and 224. Instead ofhaving the SDAPs 215 and 225 at the top of the stack as in the NR userplane protocol stack, the NR control plane stack has radio resourcecontrols (RRCs) 216 and 226 and NAS protocols 217 and 237 at the top ofthe NR control plane protocol stack.

The NAS protocols 217 and 237 may provide control plane functionalitybetween the UE 210 and the AMF 230 (e.g., the AMF 158A) or, moregenerally, between the UE 210 and the CN. The NAS protocols 217 and 237may provide control plane functionality between the UE 210 and the AMF230 via signaling messages, referred to as NAS messages. There is nodirect path between the UE 210 and the AMF 230 through which the NASmessages can be transported. The NAS messages may be transported usingthe AS of the Uu and NG interfaces. NAS protocols 217 and 237 mayprovide control plane functionality such as authentication, security,connection setup, mobility management, and session management.

The RRCs 216 and 226 may provide control plane functionality between theUE 210 and the gNB 220 or, more generally, between the UE 210 and theRAN. The RRCs 216 and 226 may provide control plane functionalitybetween the UE 210 and the gNB 220 via signaling messages, referred toas RRC messages. RRC messages may be transmitted between the UE 210 andthe RAN using signaling radio bearers and the same/similar PDCP, RLC,MAC, and PHY protocol layers. The MAC may multiplex control-plane anduser-plane data into the same transport block (TB). The RRCs 216 and 226may provide control plane functionality such as: broadcast of systeminformation related to AS and NAS; paging initiated by the CN or theRAN; establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection betweenthe UE 210 and the RAN; security functions including key management;establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of signaling radiobearers and data radio bearers; mobility functions; QoS managementfunctions; the UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting;detection of and recovery from radio link failure (RLF); and/or NASmessage transfer. As part of establishing an RRC connection, RRCs 216and 226 may establish an RRC context, which may involve configuringparameters for communication between the UE 210 and the RAN.

FIG. 6 is an example diagram showing RRC state transitions of a UE. TheUE may be the same or similar to the wireless device 106 depicted inFIG. 1A, the UE 210 depicted in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, or any otherwireless device described in the present disclosure. As illustrated inFIG. 6 , a UE may be in at least one of three RRC states: RRC connected602 (e.g., RRC_CONNECTED), RRC idle 604 (e.g., RRC_IDLE), and RRCinactive 606 (e.g., RRC_INACTIVE).

In RRC connected 602, the UE has an established RRC context and may haveat least one RRC connection with a base station. The base station may besimilar to one of the one or more base stations included in the RAN 104depicted in FIG. 1A, one of the gNBs 160 or ng-eNBs 162 depicted in FIG.1B, the gNB 220 depicted in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, or any other basestation described in the present disclosure. The base station with whichthe UE is connected may have the RRC context for the UE. The RRCcontext, referred to as the UE context, may comprise parameters forcommunication between the UE and the base station. These parameters mayinclude, for example: one or more AS contexts; one or more radio linkconfiguration parameters; bearer configuration information (e.g.,relating to a data radio bearer, signaling radio bearer, logicalchannel, QoS flow, and/or PDU session); security information; and/orPHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and/or SDAP layer configuration information. Whilein RRC connected 602, mobility of the UE may be managed by the RAN(e.g., the RAN 104 or the NG-RAN 154). The UE may measure the signallevels (e.g., reference signal levels) from a serving cell andneighboring cells and report these measurements to the base stationcurrently serving the UE. The UE's serving base station may request ahandover to a cell of one of the neighboring base stations based on thereported measurements. The RRC state may transition from RRC connected602 to RRC idle 604 through a connection release procedure 608 or to RRCinactive 606 through a connection inactivation procedure 610.

In RRC idle 604, an RRC context may not be established for the UE. InRRC idle 604, the UE may not have an RRC connection with the basestation. While in RRC idle 604, the UE may be in a sleep state for themajority of the time (e.g., to conserve battery power). The UE may wakeup periodically (e.g., once in every discontinuous reception cycle) tomonitor for paging messages from the RAN. Mobility of the UE may bemanaged by the UE through a procedure known as cell reselection. The RRCstate may transition from RRC idle 604 to RRC connected 602 through aconnection establishment procedure 612, which may involve a randomaccess procedure as discussed in greater detail below.

In RRC inactive 606, the RRC context previously established ismaintained in the UE and the base station. This allows for a fasttransition to RRC connected 602 with reduced signaling overhead ascompared to the transition from RRC idle 604 to RRC connected 602. Whilein RRC inactive 606, the UE may be in a sleep state and mobility of theUE may be managed by the UE through cell reselection. The RRC state maytransition from RRC inactive 606 to RRC connected 602 through aconnection resume procedure 614 or to RRC idle 604 though a connectionrelease procedure 616 that may be the same as or similar to connectionrelease procedure 608.

An RRC state may be associated with a mobility management mechanism. InRRC idle 604 and RRC inactive 606, mobility is managed by the UE throughcell reselection. The purpose of mobility management in RRC idle 604 andRRC inactive 606 is to allow the network to be able to notify the UE ofan event via a paging message without having to broadcast the pagingmessage over the entire mobile communications network. The mobilitymanagement mechanism used in RRC idle 604 and RRC inactive 606 may allowthe network to track the UE on a cell-group level so that the pagingmessage may be broadcast over the cells of the cell group that the UEcurrently resides within instead of the entire mobile communicationnetwork. The mobility management mechanisms for RRC idle 604 and RRCinactive 606 track the UE on a cell-group level. They may do so usingdifferent granularities of grouping. For example, there may be threelevels of cell-grouping granularity: individual cells; cells within aRAN area identified by a RAN area identifier (RAI); and cells within agroup of RAN areas, referred to as a tracking area and identified by atracking area identifier (TAI).

Tracking areas may be used to track the UE at the CN level. The CN(e.g., the CN 102 or the 5G-CN 152) may provide the UE with a list ofTAIs associated with a UE registration area. If the UE moves, throughcell reselection, to a cell associated with a TAI not included in thelist of TAIs associated with the UE registration area, the UE mayperform a registration update with the CN to allow the CN to update theUE's location and provide the UE with a new the UE registration area.

RAN areas may be used to track the UE at the RAN level. For a UE in RRCinactive 606 state, the UE may be assigned a RAN notification area. ARAN notification area may comprise one or more cell identities, a listof RAIs, or a list of TAIs. In an example, a base station may belong toone or more RAN notification areas. In an example, a cell may belong toone or more RAN notification areas. If the UE moves, through cellreselection, to a cell not included in the RAN notification areaassigned to the UE, the UE may perform a notification area update withthe RAN to update the UE's RAN notification area.

A base station storing an RRC context for a UE or a last serving basestation of the UE may be referred to as an anchor base station. Ananchor base station may maintain an RRC context for the UE at leastduring a period of time that the UE stays in a RAN notification area ofthe anchor base station and/or during a period of time that the UE staysin RRC inactive 606.

A gNB, such as gNBs 160 in FIG. 1B, may be split in two parts: a centralunit (gNB-CU), and one or more distributed units (gNB-DU). A gNB-CU maybe coupled to one or more gNB-DUs using an F1 interface. The gNB-CU maycomprise the RRC, the PDCP, and the SDAP. A gNB-DU may comprise the RLC,the MAC, and the PHY.

In NR, the physical signals and physical channels (discussed withrespect to FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B) may be mapped onto orthogonal frequencydivisional multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. OFDM is a multicarriercommunication scheme that transmits data over F orthogonal subcarriers(or tones). Before transmission, the data may be mapped to a series ofcomplex symbols (e.g., M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) orM-phase shift keying (M-PSK) symbols), referred to as source symbols,and divided into F parallel symbol streams. The F parallel symbolstreams may be treated as though they are in the frequency domain andused as inputs to an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) block thattransforms them into the time domain. The IFFT block may take in Fsource symbols at a time, one from each of the F parallel symbolstreams, and use each source symbol to modulate the amplitude and phaseof one of F sinusoidal basis functions that correspond to the Forthogonal subcarriers. The output of the IFFT block may be Ftime-domain samples that represent the summation of the F orthogonalsubcarriers. The F time-domain samples may form a single OFDM symbol.After some processing (e.g., addition of a cyclic prefix) andup-conversion, an OFDM symbol provided by the IFFT block may betransmitted over the air interface on a carrier frequency. The Fparallel symbol streams may be mixed using an FFT block before beingprocessed by the IFFT block. This operation produces Discrete FourierTransform (DFT)-precoded OFDM symbols and may be used by UEs in theuplink to reduce the peak to average power ratio (PAPR). Inverseprocessing may be performed on the OFDM symbol at a receiver using anFFT block to recover the data mapped to the source symbols.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example configuration of an NR frame into whichOFDM symbols are grouped. An NR frame may be identified by a systemframe number (SFN). The SFN may repeat with a period of 1024 frames. Asillustrated, one NR frame may be 10 milliseconds (ms) in duration andmay include 10 subframes that are 1 ms in duration. A subframe may bedivided into slots that include, for example, 14 OFDM symbols per slot.

The duration of a slot may depend on the numerology used for the OFDMsymbols of the slot. In NR, a flexible numerology is supported toaccommodate different cell deployments (e.g., cells with carrierfrequencies below 1 GHz up to cells with carrier frequencies in themm-wave range). A numerology may be defined in terms of subcarrierspacing and cyclic prefix duration. For a numerology in NR, subcarrierspacings may be scaled up by powers of two from a baseline subcarrierspacing of 15 kHz, and cyclic prefix durations may be scaled down bypowers of two from a baseline cyclic prefix duration of 4.7 μs. Forexample, NR defines numerologies with the following subcarrierspacing/cyclic prefix duration combinations: 15 kHz/4.7 μs; 30 kHz/2.3μs; 60 kHz/1.2 μs; 120 kHz/0.59 μs; and 240 kHz/0.29 μs.

A slot may have a fixed number of OFDM symbols (e.g., 14 OFDM symbols).A numerology with a higher subcarrier spacing has a shorter slotduration and, correspondingly, more slots per subframe. FIG. 7illustrates this numerology-dependent slot duration andslots-per-subframe transmission structure (the numerology with asubcarrier spacing of 240 kHz is not shown in FIG. 7 for ease ofillustration). A subframe in NR may be used as a numerology-independenttime reference, while a slot may be used as the unit upon which uplinkand downlink transmissions are scheduled. To support low latency,scheduling in NR may be decoupled from the slot duration and start atany OFDM symbol and last for as many symbols as needed for atransmission. These partial slot transmissions may be referred to asmini-slot or subslot transmissions.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example configuration of a slot in the time andfrequency domain for an NR carrier. The slot includes resource elements(REs) and resource blocks (RBs). An RE is the smallest physical resourcein NR. An RE spans one OFDM symbol in the time domain by one subcarrierin the frequency domain as shown in FIG. 8 . An RB spans twelveconsecutive REs in the frequency domain as shown in FIG. 8 . An NRcarrier may be limited to a width of 275 RBs or 275×12=3300 subcarriers.Such a limitation, if used, may limit the NR carrier to 50, 100, 200,and 400 MHz for subcarrier spacings of 15, 30, 60, and 120 kHz,respectively, where the 400 MHz bandwidth may be set based on a 400 MHzper carrier bandwidth limit.

FIG. 8 illustrates a single numerology being used across the entirebandwidth of the NR carrier. In other example configurations, multiplenumerologies may be supported on the same carrier.

NR may support wide carrier bandwidths (e.g., up to 400 MHz for asubcarrier spacing of 120 kHz). Not all UEs may be able to receive thefull carrier bandwidth (e.g., due to hardware limitations). Also,receiving the full carrier bandwidth may be prohibitive in terms of UEpower consumption. In an example, to reduce power consumption and/or forother purposes, a UE may adapt the size of the UE's receive bandwidthbased on the amount of traffic the UE is scheduled to receive. This isreferred to as bandwidth adaptation.

NR defines bandwidth parts (BWPs) to support UEs not capable ofreceiving the full carrier bandwidth and to support bandwidthadaptation. In an example, a BWP may be defined by a subset ofcontiguous RBs on a carrier. A UE may be configured (e.g., via RRClayer) with one or more downlink BWPs and one or more uplink BWPs perserving cell (e.g., up to four downlink BWPs and up to four uplink BWPsper serving cell). At a given time, one or more of the configured BWPsfor a serving cell may be active. These one or more BWPs may be referredto as active BWPs of the serving cell. When a serving cell is configuredwith a secondary uplink carrier, the serving cell may have one or morefirst active BWPs in the uplink carrier and one or more second activeBWPs in the secondary uplink carrier.

For unpaired spectra, a downlink BWP from a set of configured downlinkBWPs may be linked with an uplink BWP from a set of configured uplinkBWPs if a downlink BWP index of the downlink BWP and an uplink BWP indexof the uplink BWP are the same. For unpaired spectra, a UE may expectthat a center frequency for a downlink BWP is the same as a centerfrequency for an uplink BWP.

For a downlink BWP in a set of configured downlink BWPs on a primarycell (PCell), a base station may configure a UE with one or more controlresource sets (CORESETs) for at least one search space. A search spaceis a set of locations in the time and frequency domains where the UE mayfind control information. The search space may be a UE-specific searchspace or a common search space (potentially usable by a plurality ofUEs). For example, a base station may configure a UE with a commonsearch space, on a PCell or on a primary secondary cell (PSCell), in anactive downlink BWP.

For an uplink BWP in a set of configured uplink BWPs, a BS may configurea UE with one or more resource sets for one or more PUCCH transmissions.A UE may receive downlink receptions (e.g., PDCCH or PDSCH) in adownlink BWP according to a configured numerology (e.g., subcarrierspacing and cyclic prefix duration) for the downlink BWP. The UE maytransmit uplink transmissions (e.g., PUCCH or PUSCH) in an uplink BWPaccording to a configured numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing andcyclic prefix length for the uplink BWP).

One or more BWP indicator fields may be provided in Downlink ControlInformation (DCI). A value of a BWP indicator field may indicate whichBWP in a set of configured BWPs is an active downlink BWP for one ormore downlink receptions. The value of the one or more BWP indicatorfields may indicate an active uplink BWP for one or more uplinktransmissions.

A base station may semi-statically configure a UE with a defaultdownlink BWP within a set of configured downlink BWPs associated with aPCell. If the base station does not provide the default downlink BWP tothe UE, the default downlink BWP may be an initial active downlink BWP.The UE may determine which BWP is the initial active downlink BWP basedon a CORESET configuration obtained using the PBCH.

A base station may configure a UE with a BWP inactivity timer value fora PCell. The UE may start or restart a BWP inactivity timer at anyappropriate time. For example, the UE may start or restart the BWPinactivity timer (a) when the UE detects a DCI indicating an activedownlink BWP other than a default downlink BWP for a paired spectraoperation; or (b) when a UE detects a DCI indicating an active downlinkBWP or active uplink BWP other than a default downlink BWP or uplink BWPfor an unpaired spectra operation. If the UE does not detect DCI duringan interval of time (e.g., 1 ms or 0.5 ms), the UE may run the BWPinactivity timer toward expiration (for example, increment from zero tothe BWP inactivity timer value, or decrement from the BWP inactivitytimer value to zero). When the BWP inactivity timer expires, the UE mayswitch from the active downlink BWP to the default downlink BWP.

In an example, a base station may semi-statically configure a UE withone or more BWPs. A UE may switch an active BWP from a first BWP to asecond BWP in response to receiving a DCI indicating the second BWP asan active BWP and/or in response to an expiry of the BWP inactivitytimer (e.g., if the second BWP is the default BWP).

Downlink and uplink BWP switching (where BWP switching refers toswitching from a currently active BWP to a not currently active BWP) maybe performed independently in paired spectra. In unpaired spectra,downlink and uplink BWP switching may be performed simultaneously.Switching between configured BWPs may occur based on RRC signaling, DCI,expiration of a BWP inactivity timer, and/or an initiation of randomaccess.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of bandwidth adaptation using threeconfigured BWPs for an NR carrier. A UE configured with the three BWPsmay switch from one BWP to another BWP at a switching point. In theexample illustrated in FIG. 9 , the BWPs include: a BWP 902 with abandwidth of 40 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz; a BWP 904 with abandwidth of 10 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz; and a BWP 906with a bandwidth of 20 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 60 kHz. The BWP902 may be an initial active BWP, and the BWP 904 may be a default BWP.The UE may switch between BWPs at switching points. In the example ofFIG. 9 , the UE may switch from the BWP 902 to the BWP 904 at aswitching point 908. The switching at the switching point 908 may occurfor any suitable reason, for example, in response to an expiry of a BWPinactivity timer (indicating switching to the default BWP) and/or inresponse to receiving a DCI indicating BWP 904 as the active BWP. The UEmay switch at a switching point 910 from active BWP 904 to BWP 906 inresponse receiving a DCI indicating BWP 906 as the active BWP. The UEmay switch at a switching point 912 from active BWP 906 to BWP 904 inresponse to an expiry of a BWP inactivity timer and/or in responsereceiving a DCI indicating BWP 904 as the active BWP. The UE may switchat a switching point 914 from active BWP 904 to BWP 902 in responsereceiving a DCI indicating BWP 902 as the active BWP.

If a UE is configured for a secondary cell with a default downlink BWPin a set of configured downlink BWPs and a timer value, UE proceduresfor switching BWPs on a secondary cell may be the same/similar as thoseon a primary cell. For example, the UE may use the timer value and thedefault downlink BWP for the secondary cell in the same/similar manneras the UE would use these values for a primary cell.

To provide for greater data rates, two or more carriers can beaggregated and simultaneously transmitted to/from the same UE usingcarrier aggregation (CA). The aggregated carriers in CA may be referredto as component carriers (CCs). When CA is used, there are a number ofserving cells for the UE, one for a CC. The CCs may have threeconfigurations in the frequency domain.

FIG. 10A illustrates the three CA configurations with two CCs. In theintraband, contiguous configuration 1002, the two CCs are aggregated inthe same frequency band (frequency band A) and are located directlyadjacent to each other within the frequency band. In the intraband,non-contiguous configuration 1004, the two CCs are aggregated in thesame frequency band (frequency band A) and are separated in thefrequency band by a gap. In the interband configuration 1006, the twoCCs are located in frequency bands (frequency band A and frequency bandB).

In an example, up to 32 CCs may be aggregated. The aggregated CCs mayhave the same or different bandwidths, subcarrier spacing, and/orduplexing schemes (TDD or FDD). A serving cell for a UE using CA mayhave a downlink CC. For FDD, one or more uplink CCs may be optionallyconfigured for a serving cell. The ability to aggregate more downlinkcarriers than uplink carriers may be useful, for example, when the UEhas more data traffic in the downlink than in the uplink.

When CA is used, one of the aggregated cells for a UE may be referred toas a primary cell (PCell). The PCell may be the serving cell that the UEinitially connects to at RRC connection establishment, reestablishment,and/or handover. The PCell may provide the UE with NAS mobilityinformation and the security input. UEs may have different PCells. Inthe downlink, the carrier corresponding to the PCell may be referred toas the downlink primary CC (DL PCC). In the uplink, the carriercorresponding to the PCell may be referred to as the uplink primary CC(UL PCC). The other aggregated cells for the UE may be referred to assecondary cells (SCells). In an example, the SCells may be configuredafter the PCell is configured for the UE. For example, an SCell may beconfigured through an RRC Connection Reconfiguration procedure. In thedownlink, the carrier corresponding to an SCell may be referred to as adownlink secondary CC (DL SCC). In the uplink, the carrier correspondingto the SCell may be referred to as the uplink secondary CC (UL SCC).

Configured SCells for a UE may be activated and deactivated based on,for example, traffic and channel conditions. Deactivation of an SCellmay mean that PDCCH and PDSCH reception on the SCell is stopped andPUSCH, SRS, and CQI transmissions on the SCell are stopped. ConfiguredSCells may be activated and deactivated using a MAC CE with respect toFIG. 4B. For example, a MAC CE may use a bitmap (e.g., one bit perSCell) to indicate which SCells (e.g., in a subset of configured SCells)for the UE are activated or deactivated. Configured SCells may bedeactivated in response to an expiration of an SCell deactivation timer(e.g., one SCell deactivation timer per SCell).

Downlink control information, such as scheduling assignments andscheduling grants, for a cell may be transmitted on the cellcorresponding to the assignments and grants, which is known asself-scheduling. The DCI for the cell may be transmitted on anothercell, which is known as cross-carrier scheduling. Uplink controlinformation (e.g., HARQ acknowledgments and channel state feedback, suchas CQI, PMI, and/or RI) for aggregated cells may be transmitted on thePUCCH of the PCell. For a larger number of aggregated downlink CCs, thePUCCH of the PCell may become overloaded. Cells may be divided intomultiple PUCCH groups.

FIG. 10B illustrates an example of how aggregated cells may beconfigured into one or more PUCCH groups. A PUCCH group 1010 and a PUCCHgroup 1050 may include one or more downlink CCs, respectively. In theexample of FIG. 10B, the PUCCH group 1010 includes three downlink CCs: aPCell 1011, an SCell 1012, and an SCell 1013. The PUCCH group 1050includes three downlink CCs in the present example: a PCell 1051, anSCell 1052, and an SCell 1053. One or more uplink CCs may be configuredas a PCell 1021, an SCell 1022, and an SCell 1023. One or more otheruplink CCs may be configured as a primary Scell (PSCell) 1061, an SCell1062, and an SCell 1063. Uplink control information (UCI) related to thedownlink CCs of the PUCCH group 1010, shown as UCI 1031, UCI 1032, andUCI 1033, may be transmitted in the uplink of the PCell 1021. Uplinkcontrol information (UCI) related to the downlink CCs of the PUCCH group1050, shown as UCI 1071, UCI 1072, and UCI 1073, may be transmitted inthe uplink of the PSCell 1061. In an example, if the aggregated cellsdepicted in FIG. 10B were not divided into the PUCCH group 1010 and thePUCCH group 1050, a single uplink PCell to transmit UCI relating to thedownlink CCs, and the PCell may become overloaded. By dividingtransmissions of UCI between the PCell 1021 and the PSCell 1061,overloading may be prevented.

A cell, comprising a downlink carrier and optionally an uplink carrier,may be assigned with a physical cell ID and a cell index. The physicalcell ID or the cell index may identify a downlink carrier and/or anuplink carrier of the cell, for example, depending on the context inwhich the physical cell ID is used. A physical cell ID may be determinedusing a synchronization signal transmitted on a downlink componentcarrier. A cell index may be determined using RRC messages. In thedisclosure, a physical cell ID may be referred to as a carrier ID, and acell index may be referred to as a carrier index. For example, when thedisclosure refers to a first physical cell ID for a first downlinkcarrier, the disclosure may mean the first physical cell ID is for acell comprising the first downlink carrier. The same/similar concept mayapply to, for example, a carrier activation. When the disclosureindicates that a first carrier is activated, the specification may meanthat a cell comprising the first carrier is activated.

In CA, a multi-carrier nature of a PHY may be exposed to a MAC. In anexample, a HARQ entity may operate on a serving cell. A transport blockmay be generated per assignment/grant per serving cell. A transportblock and potential HARQ retransmissions of the transport block may bemapped to a serving cell.

In the downlink, a base station may transmit (e.g., unicast, multicast,and/or broadcast) one or more Reference Signals (RSs) to a UE (e.g.,PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, DMRS, and/or PT-RS, as shown in FIG. 5A). In theuplink, the UE may transmit one or more RSs to the base station (e.g.,DMRS, PT-RS, and/or SRS, as shown in FIG. 5B). The PSS and the SSS maybe transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to synchronize theUE to the base station. The PSS and the SSS may be provided in asynchronization signal (SS)/physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block thatincludes the PSS, the SSS, and the PBCH. The base station mayperiodically transmit a burst of SS/PBCH blocks.

FIG. 11A illustrates an example of an SS/PBCH block's structure andlocation. A burst of SS/PBCH blocks may include one or more SS/PBCHblocks (e.g., 4 SS/PBCH blocks, as shown in FIG. 11A). Bursts may betransmitted periodically (e.g., every 2 frames or 20 ms). A burst may berestricted to a half-frame (e.g., a first half-frame having a durationof 5 ms). It will be understood that FIG. 11A is an example, and thatthese parameters (number of SS/PBCH blocks per burst, periodicity ofbursts, position of burst within the frame) may be configured based on,for example: a carrier frequency of a cell in which the SS/PBCH block istransmitted; a numerology or subcarrier spacing of the cell; aconfiguration by the network (e.g., using RRC signaling); or any othersuitable factor. In an example, the UE may assume a subcarrier spacingfor the SS/PBCH block based on the carrier frequency being monitored,unless the radio network configured the UE to assume a differentsubcarrier spacing.

The SS/PBCH block may span one or more OFDM symbols in the time domain(e.g., 4 OFDM symbols, as shown in the example of FIG. 11A) and may spanone or more subcarriers in the frequency domain (e.g., 240 contiguoussubcarriers). The PSS, the SSS, and the PBCH may have a common centerfrequency. The PSS may be transmitted first and may span, for example, 1OFDM symbol and 127 subcarriers. The SSS may be transmitted after thePSS (e.g., two symbols later) and may span 1 OFDM symbol and 127subcarriers. The PBCH may be transmitted after the PSS (e.g., across thenext 3 OFDM symbols) and may span 240 subcarriers.

The location of the SS/PBCH block in the time and frequency domains maynot be known to the UE (e.g., if the UE is searching for the cell). Tofind and select the cell, the UE may monitor a carrier for the PSS. Forexample, the UE may monitor a frequency location within the carrier. Ifthe PSS is not found after a certain duration (e.g., 20 ms), the UE maysearch for the PSS at a different frequency location within the carrier,as indicated by a synchronization raster. If the PSS is found at alocation in the time and frequency domains, the UE may determine, basedon a known structure of the SS/PBCH block, the locations of the SSS andthe PBCH, respectively. The SS/PBCH block may be a cell-defining SSblock (CD-SSB). In an example, a primary cell may be associated with aCD-SSB. The CD-SSB may be located on a synchronization raster. In anexample, a cell selection/search and/or reselection may be based on theCD-SSB.

The SS/PBCH block may be used by the UE to determine one or moreparameters of the cell. For example, the UE may determine a physicalcell identifier (PCI) of the cell based on the sequences of the PSS andthe SSS, respectively. The UE may determine a location of a frameboundary of the cell based on the location of the SS/PBCH block. Forexample, the SS/PBCH block may indicate that it has been transmitted inaccordance with a transmission pattern, wherein a SS/PBCH block in thetransmission pattern is a known distance from the frame boundary.

The PBCH may use a QPSK modulation and may use forward error correction(FEC). The FEC may use polar coding. One or more symbols spanned by thePBCH may carry one or more DMRSs for demodulation of the PBCH. The PBCHmay include an indication of a current system frame number (SFN) of thecell and/or a SS/PBCH block timing index. These parameters mayfacilitate time synchronization of the UE to the base station. The PBCHmay include a master information block (MIB) used to provide the UE withone or more parameters. The MIB may be used by the UE to locateremaining minimum system information (RMSI) associated with the cell.The RMSI may include a System Information Block Type 1 (SIB1). The SIB1may contain information needed by the UE to access the cell. The UE mayuse one or more parameters of the MIB to monitor PDCCH, which may beused to schedule PDSCH. The PDSCH may include the SIB1. The SIB1 may bedecoded using parameters provided in the MIB. The PBCH may indicate anabsence of SIB 1. Based on the PBCH indicating the absence of SIB1, theUE may be pointed to a frequency. The UE may search for an SS/PBCH blockat the frequency to which the UE is pointed.

The UE may assume that one or more SS/PBCH blocks transmitted with asame SS/PBCH block index are quasi co-located (QCLed) (e.g., having thesame/similar Doppler spread, Doppler shift, average gain, average delay,and/or spatial Rx parameters). The UE may not assume QCL for SS/PBCHblock transmissions having different SS/PBCH block indices.

SS/PBCH blocks (e.g., those within a half-frame) may be transmitted inspatial directions (e.g., using different beams that span a coveragearea of the cell). In an example, a first SS/PBCH block may betransmitted in a first spatial direction using a first beam, and asecond SS/PBCH block may be transmitted in a second spatial directionusing a second beam.

In an example, within a frequency span of a carrier, a base station maytransmit a plurality of SS/PBCH blocks. In an example, a first PCI of afirst SS/PBCH block of the plurality of SS/PBCH blocks may be differentfrom a second PCI of a second SS/PBCH block of the plurality of SS/PBCHblocks. The PCIs of SS/PBCH blocks transmitted in different frequencylocations may be different or the same.

The CSI-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE toacquire channel state information (CSI). The base station may configurethe UE with one or more CSI-RSs for channel estimation or any othersuitable purpose. The base station may configure a UE with one or moreof the same/similar CSI-RSs. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RSs.The UE may estimate a downlink channel state and/or generate a CSIreport based on the measuring of the one or more downlink CSI-RSs. TheUE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station mayuse feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channelstate) to perform link adaptation.

The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or moreCSI-RS resource sets. A CSI-RS resource may be associated with alocation in the time and frequency domains and a periodicity. The basestation may selectively activate and/or deactivate a CSI-RS resource.The base station may indicate to the UE that a CSI-RS resource in theCSI-RS resource set is activated and/or deactivated.

The base station may configure the UE to report CSI measurements. Thebase station may configure the UE to provide CSI reports periodically,aperiodically, or semi-persistently. For periodic CSI reporting, the UEmay be configured with a timing and/or periodicity of a plurality of CSIreports. For aperiodic CSI reporting, the base station may request a CSIreport. For example, the base station may command the UE to measure aconfigured CSI-RS resource and provide a CSI report relating to themeasurements. For semi-persistent CSI reporting, the base station mayconfigure the UE to transmit periodically, and selectively activate ordeactivate the periodic reporting. The base station may configure the UEwith a CSI-RS resource set and CSI reports using RRC signaling.

The CSI-RS configuration may comprise one or more parameters indicating,for example, up to 32 antenna ports. The UE may be configured to employthe same OFDM symbols for a downlink CSI-RS and a control resource set(CORESET) when the downlink CSI-RS and CORESET are spatially QCLed andresource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside of thephysical resource blocks (PRBs) configured for the CORESET. The UE maybe configured to employ the same OFDM symbols for downlink CSI-RS andSS/PBCH blocks when the downlink CSI-RS and SS/PBCH blocks are spatiallyQCLed and resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS areoutside of PRBs configured for the SS/PBCH blocks.

Downlink DMRSs may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE forchannel estimation. For example, the downlink DMRS may be used forcoherent demodulation of one or more downlink physical channels (e.g.,PDSCH). An NR network may support one or more variable and/orconfigurable DMRS patterns for data demodulation. At least one downlinkDMRS configuration may support a front-loaded DMRS pattern. Afront-loaded DMRS may be mapped over one or more OFDM symbols (e.g., oneor two adjacent OFDM symbols). A base station may semi-staticallyconfigure the UE with a number (e.g. a maximum number) of front-loadedDMRS symbols for PDSCH. A DMRS configuration may support one or moreDMRS ports. For example, for single user-MIMO, a DMRS configuration maysupport up to eight orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. Formultiuser-MIMO, a DMRS configuration may support up to 4 orthogonaldownlink DMRS ports per UE. A radio network may support (e.g., at leastfor CP-OFDM) a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink, wherein aDMRS location, a DMRS pattern, and/or a scrambling sequence may be thesame or different. The base station may transmit a downlink DMRS and acorresponding PDSCH using the same precoding matrix. The UE may use theone or more downlink DMRSs for coherent demodulation/channel estimationof the PDSCH.

In an example, a transmitter (e.g., a base station) may use a precodermatrices for a part of a transmission bandwidth. For example, thetransmitter may use a first precoder matrix for a first bandwidth and asecond precoder matrix for a second bandwidth. The first precoder matrixand the second precoder matrix may be different based on the firstbandwidth being different from the second bandwidth. The UE may assumethat a same precoding matrix is used across a set of PRBs. The set ofPRBs may be denoted as a precoding resource block group (PRG).

A PDSCH may comprise one or more layers. The UE may assume that at leastone symbol with DMRS is present on a layer of the one or more layers ofthe PDSCH. A higher layer may configure up to 3 DMRSs for the PDSCH.

Downlink PT-RS may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE forphase-noise compensation. Whether a downlink PT-RS is present or not maydepend on an RRC configuration. The presence and/or pattern of thedownlink PT-RS may be configured on a UE-specific basis using acombination of RRC signaling and/or an association with one or moreparameters employed for other purposes (e.g., modulation and codingscheme (MCS)), which may be indicated by DCI. When configured, a dynamicpresence of a downlink PT-RS may be associated with one or more DCIparameters comprising at least MCS. An NR network may support aplurality of PT-RS densities defined in the time and/or frequencydomains. When present, a frequency domain density may be associated withat least one configuration of a scheduled bandwidth. The UE may assume asame precoding for a DMRS port and a PT-RS port. A number of PT-RS portsmay be fewer than a number of DMRS ports in a scheduled resource.Downlink PT-RS may be confined in the scheduled time/frequency durationfor the UE. Downlink PT-RS may be transmitted on symbols to facilitatephase tracking at the receiver.

The UE may transmit an uplink DMRS to a base station for channelestimation. For example, the base station may use the uplink DMRS forcoherent demodulation of one or more uplink physical channels. Forexample, the UE may transmit an uplink DMRS with a PUSCH and/or a PUCCH.The uplink DMRS may span a range of frequencies that is similar to arange of frequencies associated with the corresponding physical channel.The base station may configure the UE with one or more uplink DMRSconfigurations. At least one DMRS configuration may support afront-loaded DMRS pattern. The front-loaded DMRS may be mapped over oneor more OFDM symbols (e.g., one or two adjacent OFDM symbols). One ormore uplink DMRSs may be configured to transmit at one or more symbolsof a PUSCH and/or a PUCCH. The base station may semi-staticallyconfigure the UE with a number (e.g. maximum number) of front-loadedDMRS symbols for the PUSCH and/or the PUCCH, which the UE may use toschedule a single-symbol DMRS and/or a double-symbol DMRS. An NR networkmay support (e.g., for cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (CP-OFDM)) a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink,wherein a DMRS location, a DMRS pattern, and/or a scrambling sequencefor the DMRS may be the same or different.

A PUSCH may comprise one or more layers, and the UE may transmit atleast one symbol with DMRS present on a layer of the one or more layersof the PUSCH. In an example, a higher layer may configure up to threeDMRSs for the PUSCH.

Uplink PT-RS (which may be used by a base station for phase trackingand/or phase-noise compensation) may or may not be present depending onan RRC configuration of the UE. The presence and/or pattern of uplinkPT-RS may be configured on a UE-specific basis by a combination of RRCsignaling and/or one or more parameters employed for other purposes(e.g., Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS)), which may be indicated byDCI. When configured, a dynamic presence of uplink PT-RS may beassociated with one or more DCI parameters comprising at least MCS. Aradio network may support a plurality of uplink PT-RS densities definedin time/frequency domain. When present, a frequency domain density maybe associated with at least one configuration of a scheduled bandwidth.The UE may assume a same precoding for a DMRS port and a PT-RS port. Anumber of PT-RS ports may be fewer than a number of DMRS ports in ascheduled resource. For example, uplink PT-RS may be confined in thescheduled time/frequency duration for the UE.

SRS may be transmitted by a UE to a base station for channel stateestimation to support uplink channel dependent scheduling and/or linkadaptation. SRS transmitted by the UE may allow a base station toestimate an uplink channel state at one or more frequencies. A schedulerat the base station may employ the estimated uplink channel state toassign one or more resource blocks for an uplink PUSCH transmission fromthe UE. The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with oneor more SRS resource sets. For an SRS resource set, the base station mayconfigure the UE with one or more SRS resources. An SRS resource setapplicability may be configured by a higher layer (e.g., RRC) parameter.For example, when a higher layer parameter indicates beam management, anSRS resource in a SRS resource set of the one or more SRS resource sets(e.g., with the same/similar time domain behavior, periodic, aperiodic,and/or the like) may be transmitted at a time instant (e.g.,simultaneously). The UE may transmit one or more SRS resources in SRSresource sets. An NR network may support aperiodic, periodic and/orsemi-persistent SRS transmissions. The UE may transmit SRS resourcesbased on one or more trigger types, wherein the one or more triggertypes may comprise higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC) and/or one or moreDCI formats. In an example, at least one DCI format may be employed forthe UE to select at least one of one or more configured SRS resourcesets. An SRS trigger type 0 may refer to an SRS triggered based on ahigher layer signaling. An SRS trigger type 1 may refer to an SRStriggered based on one or more DCI formats. In an example, when PUSCHand SRS are transmitted in a same slot, the UE may be configured totransmit SRS after a transmission of a PUSCH and a corresponding uplinkDMRS.

The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or moreSRS configuration parameters indicating at least one of following: a SRSresource configuration identifier; a number of SRS ports; time domainbehavior of an SRS resource configuration (e.g., an indication ofperiodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic SRS); slot, mini-slot, and/orsubframe level periodicity; offset for a periodic and/or an aperiodicSRS resource; a number of OFDM symbols in an SRS resource; a startingOFDM symbol of an SRS resource; an SRS bandwidth; a frequency hoppingbandwidth; a cyclic shift; and/or an SRS sequence ID.

An antenna port is defined such that the channel over which a symbol onthe antenna port is conveyed can be inferred from the channel over whichanother symbol on the same antenna port is conveyed. If a first symboland a second symbol are transmitted on the same antenna port, thereceiver may infer the channel (e.g., fading gain, multipath delay,and/or the like) for conveying the second symbol on the antenna port,from the channel for conveying the first symbol on the antenna port. Afirst antenna port and a second antenna port may be referred to as quasico-located (QCLed) if one or more large-scale properties of the channelover which a first symbol on the first antenna port is conveyed may beinferred from the channel over which a second symbol on a second antennaport is conveyed. The one or more large-scale properties may comprise atleast one of: a delay spread; a Doppler spread; a Doppler shift; anaverage gain; an average delay; and/or spatial Receiving (Rx)parameters.

Channels that use beamforming require beam management. Beam managementmay comprise beam measurement, beam selection, and beam indication. Abeam may be associated with one or more reference signals. For example,a beam may be identified by one or more beamformed reference signals.The UE may perform downlink beam measurement based on downlink referencesignals (e.g., a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS))and generate a beam measurement report. The UE may perform the downlinkbeam measurement procedure after an RRC connection is set up with a basestation.

FIG. 11B illustrates an example of channel state information referencesignals (CSI-RSs) that are mapped in the time and frequency domains. Asquare shown in FIG. 11B may span a resource block (RB) within abandwidth of a cell. A base station may transmit one or more RRCmessages comprising CSI-RS resource configuration parameters indicatingone or more CSI-RSs. One or more of the following parameters may beconfigured by higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC and/or MAC signaling)for a CSI-RS resource configuration: a CSI-RS resource configurationidentity, a number of CSI-RS ports, a CSI-RS configuration (e.g., symboland resource element (RE) locations in a subframe), a CSI-RS subframeconfiguration (e.g., subframe location, offset, and periodicity in aradio frame), a CSI-RS power parameter, a CSI-RS sequence parameter, acode division multiplexing (CDM) type parameter, a frequency density, atransmission comb, quasi co-location (QCL) parameters (e.g.,QCL-scramblingidentity, crs-portscount, mbsfn-subframeconfiglist,csi-rs-configZPid, qcl-csi-rs-configNZPid), and/or other radio resourceparameters.

The three beams illustrated in FIG. 11B may be configured for a UE in aUE-specific configuration. Three beams are illustrated in FIG. 11B (beam#1, beam #2, and beam #3), more or fewer beams may be configured. Beam#1 may be allocated with CSI-RS 1101 that may be transmitted in one ormore subcarriers in an RB of a first symbol. Beam #2 may be allocatedwith CSI-RS 1102 that may be transmitted in one or more subcarriers inan RB of a second symbol. Beam #3 may be allocated with CSI-RS 1103 thatmay be transmitted in one or more subcarriers in an RB of a thirdsymbol. By using frequency division multiplexing (FDM), a base stationmay use other subcarriers in a same RB (for example, those that are notused to transmit CSI-RS 1101) to transmit another CSI-RS associated witha beam for another UE. By using time domain multiplexing (TDM), beamsused for the UE may be configured such that beams for the UE use symbolsfrom beams of other UEs.

CSI-RSs such as those illustrated in FIG. 11B (e.g., CSI-RS 1101, 1102,1103) may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE for oneor more measurements. For example, the UE may measure a reference signalreceived power (RSRP) of configured CSI-RS resources. The base stationmay configure the UE with a reporting configuration and the UE mayreport the RSRP measurements to a network (for example, via one or morebase stations) based on the reporting configuration. In an example, thebase station may determine, based on the reported measurement results,one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) statescomprising a number of reference signals. In an example, the basestation may indicate one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., via RRCsignaling, a MAC CE, and/or a DCI). The UE may receive a downlinktransmission with a receive (Rx) beam determined based on the one ormore TCI states. In an example, the UE may or may not have a capabilityof beam correspondence. If the UE has the capability of beamcorrespondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of atransmit (Tx) beam based on a spatial domain filter of the correspondingRx beam. If the UE does not have the capability of beam correspondence,the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine thespatial domain filter of the Tx beam. The UE may perform the uplink beamselection procedure based on one or more sounding reference signal (SRS)resources configured to the UE by the base station. The base station mayselect and indicate uplink beams for the UE based on measurements of theone or more SRS resources transmitted by the UE.

In a beam management procedure, a UE may assess (e.g., measure) achannel quality of one or more beam pair links, a beam pair linkcomprising a transmitting beam transmitted by a base station and areceiving beam received by the UE. Based on the assessment, the UE maytransmit a beam measurement report indicating one or more beam pairquality parameters comprising, e.g., one or more beam identifications(e.g., a beam index, a reference signal index, or the like), RSRP, aprecoding matrix indicator (PMI), a channel quality indicator (CQI),and/or a rank indicator (RI).

FIG. 12A illustrates examples of three downlink beam managementprocedures: P1, P2, and P3. Procedure P1 may enable a UE measurement ontransmit (Tx) beams of a transmission reception point (TRP) (or multipleTRPs), e.g., to support a selection of one or more base station Tx beamsand/or UE Rx beams (shown as ovals in the top row and bottom row,respectively, of P1). Beamforming at a TRP may comprise a Tx beam sweepfor a set of beams (shown, in the top rows of P1 and P2, as ovalsrotated in a counter-clockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow).Beamforming at a UE may comprise an Rx beam sweep for a set of beams(shown, in the bottom rows of P1 and P3, as ovals rotated in a clockwisedirection indicated by the dashed arrow). Procedure P2 may be used toenable a UE measurement on Tx beams of a TRP (shown, in the top row ofP2, as ovals rotated in a counter-clockwise direction indicated by thedashed arrow). The UE and/or the base station may perform procedure P2using a smaller set of beams than is used in procedure P1, or usingnarrower beams than the beams used in procedure P1. This may be referredto as beam refinement. The UE may perform procedure P3 for Rx beamdetermination by using the same Tx beam at the base station and sweepingan Rx beam at the UE.

FIG. 12B illustrates examples of three uplink beam managementprocedures: U1, U2, and U3. Procedure U1 may be used to enable a basestation to perform a measurement on Tx beams of a UE, e.g., to support aselection of one or more UE Tx beams and/or base station Rx beams (shownas ovals in the top row and bottom row, respectively, of U1).Beamforming at the UE may include, e.g., a Tx beam sweep from a set ofbeams (shown in the bottom rows of U1 and U3 as ovals rotated in aclockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow). Beamforming at thebase station may include, e.g., an Rx beam sweep from a set of beams(shown, in the top rows of U1 and U2, as ovals rotated in acounter-clockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow). Procedure U2may be used to enable the base station to adjust its Rx beam when the UEuses a fixed Tx beam. The UE and/or the base station may performprocedure U2 using a smaller set of beams than is used in procedure P1,or using narrower beams than the beams used in procedure P1. This may bereferred to as beam refinement The UE may perform procedure U3 to adjustits Tx beam when the base station uses a fixed Rx beam.

A UE may initiate a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure based ondetecting a beam failure. The UE may transmit a BFR request (e.g., apreamble, a UCI, an SR, a MAC CE, and/or the like) based on theinitiating of the BFR procedure. The UE may detect the beam failurebased on a determination that a quality of beam pair link(s) of anassociated control channel is unsatisfactory (e.g., having an error ratehigher than an error rate threshold, a received signal power lower thana received signal power threshold, an expiration of a timer, and/or thelike).

The UE may measure a quality of a beam pair link using one or morereference signals (RSs) comprising one or more SS/PBCH blocks, one ormore CSI-RS resources, and/or one or more demodulation reference signals(DMRSs). A quality of the beam pair link may be based on one or more ofa block error rate (BLER), an RSRP value, a signal to interference plusnoise ratio (SINR) value, a reference signal received quality (RSRQ)value, and/or a CSI value measured on RS resources. The base station mayindicate that an RS resource is quasi co-located (QCLed) with one ormore DMRSs of a channel (e.g., a control channel, a shared data channel,and/or the like). The RS resource and the one or more DMRSs of thechannel may be QCLed when the channel characteristics (e.g., Dopplershift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread, spatial Rxparameter, fading, and/or the like) from a transmission via the RSresource to the UE are similar or the same as the channelcharacteristics from a transmission via the channel to the UE.

A network (e.g., a gNB and/or an ng-eNB of a network) and/or the UE mayinitiate a random access procedure. A UE in an RRC_IDLE state and/or anRRC_INACTIVE state may initiate the random access procedure to request aconnection setup to a network. The UE may initiate the random accessprocedure from an RRC_CONNECTED state. The UE may initiate the randomaccess procedure to request uplink resources (e.g., for uplinktransmission of an SR when there is no PUCCH resource available) and/oracquire uplink timing (e.g., when uplink synchronization status isnon-synchronized). The UE may initiate the random access procedure torequest one or more system information blocks (SIBs) (e.g., other systeminformation such as SIB2, SIB3, and/or the like). The UE may initiatethe random access procedure for a beam failure recovery request. Anetwork may initiate a random access procedure for a handover and/or forestablishing time alignment for an SCell addition.

FIG. 13A illustrates a four-step contention-based random accessprocedure. Prior to initiation of the procedure, a base station maytransmit a configuration message 1310 to the UE. The procedureillustrated in FIG. 13A comprises transmission of four messages: a Msg 11311, a Msg 2 1312, a Msg 3 1313, and a Msg 4 1314. The Msg 1 1311 mayinclude and/or be referred to as a preamble (or a random accesspreamble). The Msg 2 1312 may include and/or be referred to as a randomaccess response (RAR).

The configuration message 1310 may be transmitted, for example, usingone or more RRC messages. The one or more RRC messages may indicate oneor more random access channel (RACH) parameters to the UE. The one ormore RACH parameters may comprise at least one of following: generalparameters for one or more random access procedures (e.g.,RACH-configGeneral); cell-specific parameters (e.g., RACH-ConfigCommon);and/or dedicated parameters (e.g., RACH-configDedicated). The basestation may broadcast or multicast the one or more RRC messages to oneor more UEs. The one or more RRC messages may be UE-specific (e.g.,dedicated RRC messages transmitted to a UE in an RRC_CONNECTED stateand/or in an RRC_INACTIVE state). The UE may determine, based on the oneor more RACH parameters, a time-frequency resource and/or an uplinktransmit power for transmission of the Msg 1 1311 and/or the Msg 3 1313.Based on the one or more RACH parameters, the UE may determine areception timing and a downlink channel for receiving the Msg 2 1312 andthe Msg 4 1314.

The one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message1310 may indicate one or more Physical RACH (PRACH) occasions availablefor transmission of the Msg 1 1311. The one or more PRACH occasions maybe predefined. The one or more RACH parameters may indicate one or moreavailable sets of one or more PRACH occasions (e.g., prach-ConfigIndex).The one or more RACH parameters may indicate an association between (a)one or more PRACH occasions and (b) one or more reference signals. Theone or more RACH parameters may indicate an association between (a) oneor more preambles and (b) one or more reference signals. The one or morereference signals may be SS/PBCH blocks and/or CSI-RSs. For example, theone or more RACH parameters may indicate a number of SS/PBCH blocksmapped to a PRACH occasion and/or a number of preambles mapped to aSS/PBCH blocks.

The one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message1310 may be used to determine an uplink transmit power of Msg 1 1311and/or Msg 3 1313. For example, the one or more RACH parameters mayindicate a reference power for a preamble transmission (e.g., a receivedtarget power and/or an initial power of the preamble transmission).There may be one or more power offsets indicated by the one or more RACHparameters. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate: apower ramping step; a power offset between SSB and CSI-RS; a poweroffset between transmissions of the Msg 1 1311 and the Msg 3 1313;and/or a power offset value between preamble groups. The one or moreRACH parameters may indicate one or more thresholds based on which theUE may determine at least one reference signal (e.g., an SSB and/orCSI-RS) and/or an uplink carrier (e.g., a normal uplink (NUL) carrierand/or a supplemental uplink (SUL) carrier).

The Msg 1 1311 may include one or more preamble transmissions (e.g., apreamble transmission and one or more preamble retransmissions). An RRCmessage may be used to configure one or more preamble groups (e.g.,group A and/or group B). A preamble group may comprise one or morepreambles. The UE may determine the preamble group based on a pathlossmeasurement and/or a size of the Msg 3 1313. The UE may measure an RSRPof one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs) anddetermine at least one reference signal having an RSRP above an RSRPthreshold (e.g., rsrp-ThresholdSSB and/or rsrp-ThresholdCSI-RS). The UEmay select at least one preamble associated with the one or morereference signals and/or a selected preamble group, for example, if theassociation between the one or more preambles and the at least onereference signal is configured by an RRC message.

The UE may determine the preamble based on the one or more RACHparameters provided in the configuration message 1310. For example, theUE may determine the preamble based on a pathloss measurement, an RSRPmeasurement, and/or a size of the Msg 3 1313. As another example, theone or more RACH parameters may indicate: a preamble format; a maximumnumber of preamble transmissions; and/or one or more thresholds fordetermining one or more preamble groups (e.g., group A and group B). Abase station may use the one or more RACH parameters to configure the UEwith an association between one or more preambles and one or morereference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs). If the association isconfigured, the UE may determine the preamble to include in Msg 1 1311based on the association. The Msg 1 1311 may be transmitted to the basestation via one or more PRACH occasions. The UE may use one or morereference signals (e.g., SSBs and/or CSI-RSs) for selection of thepreamble and for determining of the PRACH occasion. One or more RACHparameters (e.g., ra-ssb-OccasionMskIndex and/or ra-OccasionList) mayindicate an association between the PRACH occasions and the one or morereference signals.

The UE may perform a preamble retransmission if no response is receivedfollowing a preamble transmission. The UE may increase an uplinktransmit power for the preamble retransmission. The UE may select aninitial preamble transmit power based on a pathloss measurement and/or atarget received preamble power configured by the network. The UE maydetermine to retransmit a preamble and may ramp up the uplink transmitpower. The UE may receive one or more RACH parameters (e.g.,PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_STEP) indicating a ramping step for the preambleretransmission. The ramping step may be an amount of incrementalincrease in uplink transmit power for a retransmission. The UE may rampup the uplink transmit power if the UE determines a reference signal(e.g., SSB and/or CSI-RS) that is the same as a previous preambletransmission. The UE may count a number of preamble transmissions and/orretransmissions (e.g., PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER). The UE maydetermine that a random access procedure completed unsuccessfully, forexample, if the number of preamble transmissions exceeds a thresholdconfigured by the one or more RACH parameters (e.g., preambleTransMax).

The Msg 2 1312 received by the UE may include an RAR. In some scenarios,the Msg 2 1312 may include multiple RARs corresponding to multiple UEs.The Msg 2 1312 may be received after or in response to the transmittingof the Msg 1 1311. The Msg 2 1312 may be scheduled on the DL-SCH andindicated on a PDCCH using a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI). The Msg 21312 may indicate that the Msg 1 1311 was received by the base station.The Msg 2 1312 may include a time-alignment command that may be used bythe UE to adjust the UE's transmission timing, a scheduling grant fortransmission of the Msg 3 1313, and/or a Temporary Cell RNTI (TC-RNTI).After transmitting a preamble, the UE may start a time window (e.g.,ra-ResponseWindow) to monitor a PDCCH for the Msg 2 1312. The UE maydetermine when to start the time window based on a PRACH occasion thatthe UE uses to transmit the preamble. For example, the UE may start thetime window one or more symbols after a last symbol of the preamble(e.g., at a first PDCCH occasion from an end of a preambletransmission). The one or more symbols may be determined based on anumerology. The PDCCH may be in a common search space (e.g., aType1-PDCCH common search space) configured by an RRC message. The UEmay identify the RAR based on a Radio Network Temporary Identifier(RNTI). RNTIs may be used depending on one or more events initiating therandom access procedure. The UE may use random access RNTI (RA-RNTI).The RA-RNTI may be associated with PRACH occasions in which the UEtransmits a preamble. For example, the UE may determine the RA-RNTIbased on: an OFDM symbol index; a slot index; a frequency domain index;and/or a UL carrier indicator of the PRACH occasions. An example ofRA-RNTI may be as follows:

RA-RNTI=1+s_id+14×t_id+14×80×f_id+14×80×8×ul_carrier_id, where s_id maybe an index of a first OFDM symbol of the PRACH occasion (e.g.,0≤s_id<14), t_id may be an index of a first slot of the PRACH occasionin a system frame (e.g., 0≤t_id<80), fid may be an index of the PRACHoccasion in the frequency domain (e.g., 0≤f_id<8), and ul_carrier_id maybe a UL carrier used for a preamble transmission (e.g., 0 for an NULcarrier, and 1 for an SUL carrier). The UE may transmit the Msg 3 1313in response to a successful reception of the Msg 2 1312 (e.g., usingresources identified in the Msg 2 1312). The Msg 3 1313 may be used forcontention resolution in, for example, the contention-based randomaccess procedure illustrated in FIG. 13A. In some scenarios, a pluralityof UEs may transmit a same preamble to a base station and the basestation may provide an RAR that corresponds to a UE. Collisions mayoccur if the plurality of UEs interpret the RAR as corresponding tothemselves. Contention resolution (e.g., using the Msg 3 1313 and theMsg 4 1314) may be used to increase the likelihood that the UE does notincorrectly use an identity of another the UE. To perform contentionresolution, the UE may include a device identifier in the Msg 3 1313(e.g., a C-RNTI if assigned, a TC-RNTI included in the Msg 2 1312,and/or any other suitable identifier).

The Msg 4 1314 may be received after or in response to the transmittingof the Msg 3 1313. If a C-RNTI was included in the Msg 3 1313, the basestation will address the UE on the PDCCH using the C-RNTI. If the UE'sunique C-RNTI is detected on the PDCCH, the random access procedure isdetermined to be successfully completed. If a TC-RNTI is included in theMsg 3 1313 (e.g., if the UE is in an RRC_IDLE state or not otherwiseconnected to the base station), Msg 4 1314 will be received using aDL-SCH associated with the TC-RNTI. If a MAC PDU is successfully decodedand a MAC PDU comprises the UE contention resolution identity MAC CEthat matches or otherwise corresponds with the CCCH SDU sent (e.g.,transmitted) in Msg 3 1313, the UE may determine that the contentionresolution is successful and/or the UE may determine that the randomaccess procedure is successfully completed.

The UE may be configured with a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier and anormal uplink (NUL) carrier. An initial access (e.g., random accessprocedure) may be supported in an uplink carrier. For example, a basestation may configure the UE with two separate RACH configurations: onefor an SUL carrier and the other for an NUL carrier. For random accessin a cell configured with an SUL carrier, the network may indicate whichcarrier to use (NUL or SUL). The UE may determine the SUL carrier, forexample, if a measured quality of one or more reference signals is lowerthan a broadcast threshold. Uplink transmissions of the random accessprocedure (e.g., the Msg 1 1311 and/or the Msg 3 1313) may remain on theselected carrier. The UE may switch an uplink carrier during the randomaccess procedure (e.g., between the Msg 1 1311 and the Msg 3 1313) inone or more cases. For example, the UE may determine and/or switch anuplink carrier for the Msg 1 1311 and/or the Msg 3 1313 based on achannel clear assessment (e.g., a listen-before-talk).

FIG. 13B illustrates a two-step contention-free random access procedure.Similar to the four-step contention-based random access procedureillustrated in FIG. 13A, a base station may, prior to initiation of theprocedure, transmit a configuration message 1320 to the UE. Theconfiguration message 1320 may be analogous in some respects to theconfiguration message 1310. The procedure illustrated in FIG. 13Bcomprises transmission of two messages: a Msg 1 1321 and a Msg 2 1322.The Msg 1 1321 and the Msg 2 1322 may be analogous in some respects tothe Msg 1 1311 and a Msg 2 1312 illustrated in FIG. 13A, respectively.As will be understood from FIGS. 13A and 13B, the contention-free randomaccess procedure may not include messages analogous to the Msg 3 1313and/or the Msg 4 1314.

The contention-free random access procedure illustrated in FIG. 13B maybe initiated for a beam failure recovery, other SI request, SCelladdition, and/or handover. For example, a base station may indicate orassign to the UE the preamble to be used for the Msg 1 1321. The UE mayreceive, from the base station via PDCCH and/or RRC, an indication of apreamble (e.g., ra-PreambleIndex).

After transmitting a preamble, the UE may start a time window (e.g.,ra-ResponseWindow) to monitor a PDCCH for the RAR. In the event of abeam failure recovery request, the base station may configure the UEwith a separate time window and/or a separate PDCCH in a search spaceindicated by an RRC message (e.g., recoverySearchSpaceId). The UE maymonitor for a PDCCH transmission addressed to a Cell RNTI (C-RNTI) onthe search space. In the contention-free random access procedureillustrated in FIG. 13B, the UE may determine that a random accessprocedure successfully completes after or in response to transmission ofMsg 1 1321 and reception of a corresponding Msg 2 1322. The UE maydetermine that a random access procedure successfully completes, forexample, if a PDCCH transmission is addressed to a C-RNTI. The UE maydetermine that a random access procedure successfully completes, forexample, if the UE receives an RAR comprising a preamble identifiercorresponding to a preamble transmitted by the UE and/or the RARcomprises a MAC sub-PDU with the preamble identifier. The UE maydetermine the response as an indication of an acknowledgement for an SIrequest.

FIG. 13C illustrates another two-step random access procedure. Similarto the random access procedures illustrated in FIGS. 13A and 13B, a basestation may, prior to initiation of the procedure, transmit aconfiguration message 1330 to the UE. The configuration message 1330 maybe analogous in some respects to the configuration message 1310 and/orthe configuration message 1320. The procedure illustrated in FIG. 13Ccomprises transmission of two messages: a Msg A 1331 and a Msg B 1332.

Msg A 1331 may be transmitted in an uplink transmission by the UE. Msg A1331 may comprise one or more transmissions of a preamble 1341 and/orone or more transmissions of a transport block 1342. The transport block1342 may comprise contents that are similar and/or equivalent to thecontents of the Msg 3 1313 illustrated in FIG. 13A. The transport block1342 may comprise UCI (e.g., an SR, a HARQ ACK/NACK, and/or the like).The UE may receive the Msg B 1332 after or in response to transmittingthe Msg A 1331. The Msg B 1332 may comprise contents that are similarand/or equivalent to the contents of the Msg 2 1312 (e.g., an RAR)illustrated in FIGS. 13A and 13B and/or the Msg 4 1314 illustrated inFIG. 13A.

The UE may initiate the two-step random access procedure in FIG. 13C forlicensed spectrum and/or unlicensed spectrum. The UE may determine,based on one or more factors, whether to initiate the two-step randomaccess procedure. The one or more factors may be: a radio accesstechnology in use (e.g., LTE, NR, and/or the like); whether the UE hasvalid TA or not; a cell size; the UE's RRC state; a type of spectrum(e.g., licensed vs. unlicensed); and/or any other suitable factors.

The UE may determine, based on two-step RACH parameters included in theconfiguration message 1330, a radio resource and/or an uplink transmitpower for the preamble 1341 and/or the transport block 1342 included inthe Msg A 1331. The RACH parameters may indicate a modulation and codingschemes (MCS), a time-frequency resource, and/or a power control for thepreamble 1341 and/or the transport block 1342. A time-frequency resourcefor transmission of the preamble 1341 (e.g., a PRACH) and atime-frequency resource for transmission of the transport block 1342(e.g., a PUSCH) may be multiplexed using FDM, TDM, and/or CDM. The RACHparameters may enable the UE to determine a reception timing and adownlink channel for monitoring for and/or receiving Msg B 1332.

The transport block 1342 may comprise data (e.g., delay-sensitive data),an identifier of the UE, security information, and/or device information(e.g., an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)). The basestation may transmit the Msg B 1332 as a response to the Msg A 1331. TheMsg B 1332 may comprise at least one of following: a preambleidentifier; a timing advance command; a power control command; an uplinkgrant (e.g., a radio resource assignment and/or an MCS); a UE identifierfor contention resolution; and/or an RNTI (e.g., a C-RNTI or a TC-RNTI).The UE may determine that the two-step random access procedure issuccessfully completed if: a preamble identifier in the Msg B 1332 ismatched to a preamble transmitted by the UE; and/or the identifier ofthe UE in Msg B 1332 is matched to the identifier of the UE in the Msg A1331 (e.g., the transport block 1342).

A UE and a base station may exchange control signaling. The controlsignaling may be referred to as L1/L2 control signaling and mayoriginate from the PHY layer (e.g., layer 1) and/or the MAC layer (e.g.,layer 2). The control signaling may comprise downlink control signalingtransmitted from the base station to the UE and/or uplink controlsignaling transmitted from the UE to the base station.

The downlink control signaling may comprise: a downlink schedulingassignment; an uplink scheduling grant indicating uplink radio resourcesand/or a transport format; a slot format information; a preemptionindication; a power control command; and/or any other suitablesignaling. The UE may receive the downlink control signaling in apayload transmitted by the base station on a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH). The payload transmitted on the PDCCH may be referred toas downlink control information (DCI). In some scenarios, the PDCCH maybe a group common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) that is common to a group of UEs.

A base station may attach one or more cyclic redundancy check (CRC)parity bits to a DCI in order to facilitate detection of transmissionerrors. When the DCI is intended for a UE (or a group of the UEs), thebase station may scramble the CRC parity bits with an identifier of theUE (or an identifier of the group of the UEs). Scrambling the CRC paritybits with the identifier may comprise Modulo-2 addition (or an exclusiveOR operation) of the identifier value and the CRC parity bits. Theidentifier may comprise a 16-bit value of a radio network temporaryidentifier (RNTI).

DCIs may be used for different purposes. A purpose may be indicated bythe type of RNTI used to scramble the CRC parity bits. For example, aDCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a paging RNTI (P-RNTI) mayindicate paging information and/or a system information changenotification. The P-RNTI may be predefined as “FFFE” in hexadecimal. ADCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a system information RNTI(SI-RNTI) may indicate a broadcast transmission of the systeminformation. The SI-RNTI may be predefined as “FFFF” in hexadecimal. ADCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI)may indicate a random access response (RAR). A DCI having CRC paritybits scrambled with a cell RNTI (C-RNTI) may indicate a dynamicallyscheduled unicast transmission and/or a triggering of PDCCH-orderedrandom access. A DCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a temporarycell RNTI (TC-RNTI) may indicate a contention resolution (e.g., a Msg 3analogous to the Msg 3 1313 illustrated in FIG. 13A). Other RNTIsconfigured to the UE by a base station may comprise a ConfiguredScheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), a Transmit Power Control-PUCCH RNTI(TPC-PUCCH-RNTI), a Transmit Power Control-PUSCH RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI),a Transmit Power Control-SRS RNTI (TPC-SRS-RNTI), an Interruption RNTI(INT-RNTI), a Slot Format Indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), a Semi-PersistentCSI RNTI (SP-CSI-RNTI), a Modulation and Coding Scheme Cell RNTI(MCS-C-RNTI), and/or the like.

Depending on the purpose and/or content of a DCI, the base station maytransmit the DCIs with one or more DCI formats. For example, DCI format0_0 may be used for scheduling of PUSCH in a cell. DCI format 0_0 may bea fallback DCI format (e.g., with compact DCI payloads). DCI format 0_1may be used for scheduling of PUSCH in a cell (e.g., with more DCIpayloads than DCI format 0_0). DCI format 1_0 may be used for schedulingof PDSCH in a cell. DCI format 1_0 may be a fallback DCI format (e.g.,with compact DCI payloads). DCI format 1_1 may be used for scheduling ofPDSCH in a cell (e.g., with more DCI payloads than DCI format 1_0). DCIformat 2_0 may be used for providing a slot format indication to a groupof UEs. DCI format 2_1 may be used for notifying a group of UEs of aphysical resource block and/or OFDM symbol where the UE may assume notransmission is intended to the UE. DCI format 2_2 may be used fortransmission of a transmit power control (TPC) command for PUCCH orPUSCH. DCI format 2_3 may be used for transmission of a group of TPCcommands for SRS transmissions by one or more UEs. DCI format(s) for newfunctions may be defined in future releases. DCI formats may havedifferent DCI sizes, or may share the same DCI size.

After scrambling a DCI with a RNTI, the base station may process the DCIwith channel coding (e.g., polar coding), rate matching, scramblingand/or QPSK modulation. A base station may map the coded and modulatedDCI on resource elements used and/or configured for a PDCCH. Based on apayload size of the DCI and/or a coverage of the base station, the basestation may transmit the DCI via a PDCCH occupying a number ofcontiguous control channel elements (CCEs). The number of the contiguousCCEs (referred to as aggregation level) may be 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and/orany other suitable number. A CCE may comprise a number (e.g., 6) ofresource-element groups (REGs). A REG may comprise a resource block inan OFDM symbol. The mapping of the coded and modulated DCI on theresource elements may be based on mapping of CCEs and REGs (e.g.,CCE-to-REG mapping).

FIG. 14A illustrates an example of CORESET configurations for abandwidth part. The base station may transmit a DCI via a PDCCH on oneor more control resource sets (CORESETs). A CORESET may comprise atime-frequency resource in which the UE tries to decode a DCI using oneor more search spaces. The base station may configure a CORESET in thetime-frequency domain. In the example of FIG. 14A, a first CORESET 1401and a second CORESET 1402 occur at the first symbol in a slot. The firstCORESET 1401 overlaps with the second CORESET 1402 in the frequencydomain. A third CORESET 1403 occurs at a third symbol in the slot. Afourth CORESET 1404 occurs at the seventh symbol in the slot. CORESETsmay have a different number of resource blocks in frequency domain.

FIG. 14B illustrates an example of a CCE-to-REG mapping for DCItransmission on a CORESET and PDCCH processing. The CCE-to-REG mappingmay be an interleaved mapping (e.g., for the purpose of providingfrequency diversity) or a non-interleaved mapping (e.g., for thepurposes of facilitating interference coordination and/orfrequency-selective transmission of control channels). The base stationmay perform different or same CCE-to-REG mapping on different CORESETs.A CORESET may be associated with a CCE-to-REG mapping by RRCconfiguration. A CORESET may be configured with an antenna port quasico-location (QCL) parameter. The antenna port QCL parameter may indicateQCL information of a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) for PDCCHreception in the CORESET.

The base station may transmit, to the UE, RRC messages comprisingconfiguration parameters of one or more CORESETs and one or more searchspace sets. The configuration parameters may indicate an associationbetween a search space set and a CORESET. A search space set maycomprise a set of PDCCH candidates formed by CCEs at a given aggregationlevel. The configuration parameters may indicate: a number of PDCCHcandidates to be monitored per aggregation level; a PDCCH monitoringperiodicity and a PDCCH monitoring pattern; one or more DCI formats tobe monitored by the UE; and/or whether a search space set is a commonsearch space set or a UE-specific search space set. A set of CCEs in thecommon search space set may be predefined and known to the UE. A set ofCCEs in the UE-specific search space set may be configured based on theUE's identity (e.g., C-RNTI).

As shown in FIG. 14B, the UE may determine a time-frequency resource fora CORESET based on RRC messages. The UE may determine a CCE-to-REGmapping (e.g., interleaved or non-interleaved, and/or mappingparameters) for the CORESET based on configuration parameters of theCORESET. The UE may determine a number (e.g., at most 10) of searchspace sets configured on the CORESET based on the RRC messages. The UEmay monitor a set of PDCCH candidates according to configurationparameters of a search space set. The UE may monitor a set of PDCCHcandidates in one or more CORESETs for detecting one or more DCIs.Monitoring may comprise decoding one or more PDCCH candidates of the setof the PDCCH candidates according to the monitored DCI formats.Monitoring may comprise decoding a DCI content of one or more PDCCHcandidates with possible (or configured) PDCCH locations, possible (orconfigured) PDCCH formats (e.g., number of CCEs, number of PDCCHcandidates in common search spaces, and/or number of PDCCH candidates inthe UE-specific search spaces) and possible (or configured) DCI formats.The decoding may be referred to as blind decoding. The UE may determinea DCI as valid for the UE, in response to CRC checking (e.g., scrambledbits for CRC parity bits of the DCI matching a RNTI value). The UE mayprocess information contained in the DCI (e.g., a scheduling assignment,an uplink grant, power control, a slot format indication, a downlinkpreemption, and/or the like).

The UE may transmit uplink control signaling (e.g., uplink controlinformation (UCI)) to a base station. The uplink control signaling maycomprise hybrid automatic repeat request (HARM) acknowledgements forreceived DL-SCH transport blocks. The UE may transmit the HARQacknowledgements after receiving a DL-SCH transport block. Uplinkcontrol signaling may comprise channel state information (CSI)indicating channel quality of a physical downlink channel. The UE maytransmit the CSI to the base station. The base station, based on thereceived CSI, may determine transmission format parameters (e.g.,comprising multi-antenna and beamforming schemes) for a downlinktransmission. Uplink control signaling may comprise scheduling requests(SR). The UE may transmit an SR indicating that uplink data is availablefor transmission to the base station. The UE may transmit a UCI (e.g.,HARQ acknowledgements (HARQ-ACK), CSI report, SR, and the like) via aphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink sharedchannel (PUSCH). The UE may transmit the uplink control signaling via aPUCCH using one of several PUCCH formats.

There may be five PUCCH formats and the UE may determine a PUCCH formatbased on a size of the UCI (e.g., a number of uplink symbols of UCItransmission and a number of UCI bits). PUCCH format 0 may have a lengthof one or two OFDM symbols and may include two or fewer bits. The UE maytransmit UCI in a PUCCH resource using PUCCH format 0 if thetransmission is over one or two symbols and the number of HARQ-ACKinformation bits with positive or negative SR (HARQ-ACK/SR bits) is oneor two. PUCCH format 1 may occupy a number between four and fourteenOFDM symbols and may include two or fewer bits. The UE may use PUCCHformat 1 if the transmission is four or more symbols and the number ofHARQ-ACK/SR bits is one or two. PUCCH format 2 may occupy one or twoOFDM symbols and may include more than two bits. The UE may use PUCCHformat 2 if the transmission is over one or two symbols and the numberof UCI bits is two or more. PUCCH format 3 may occupy a number betweenfour and fourteen OFDM symbols and may include more than two bits. TheUE may use PUCCH format 3 if the transmission is four or more symbols,the number of UCI bits is two or more and PUCCH resource does notinclude an orthogonal cover code. PUCCH format 4 may occupy a numberbetween four and fourteen OFDM symbols and may include more than twobits. The UE may use PUCCH format 4 if the transmission is four or moresymbols, the number of UCI bits is two or more and the PUCCH resourceincludes an orthogonal cover code.

The base station may transmit configuration parameters to the UE for aplurality of PUCCH resource sets using, for example, an RRC message. Theplurality of PUCCH resource sets (e.g., up to four sets) may beconfigured on an uplink BWP of a cell. A PUCCH resource set may beconfigured with a PUCCH resource set index, a plurality of PUCCHresources with a PUCCH resource being identified by a PUCCH resourceidentifier (e.g., pucch-Resourceid), and/or a number (e.g. a maximumnumber) of UCI information bits the UE may transmit using one of theplurality of PUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource set. When configuredwith a plurality of PUCCH resource sets, the UE may select one of theplurality of PUCCH resource sets based on a total bit length of the UCIinformation bits (e.g., HARQ-ACK, SR, and/or CSI). If the total bitlength of UCI information bits is two or fewer, the UE may select afirst PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to “0”.If the total bit length of UCI information bits is greater than two andless than or equal to a first configured value, the UE may select asecond PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to“1”. If the total bit length of UCI information bits is greater than thefirst configured value and less than or equal to a second configuredvalue, the UE may select a third PUCCH resource set having a PUCCHresource set index equal to “2”. If the total bit length of UCIinformation bits is greater than the second configured value and lessthan or equal to a third value (e.g., 1406), the UE may select a fourthPUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to “3”.

After determining a PUCCH resource set from a plurality of PUCCHresource sets, the UE may determine a PUCCH resource from the PUCCHresource set for UCI (HARQ-ACK, CSI, and/or SR) transmission. The UE maydetermine the PUCCH resource based on a PUCCH resource indicator in aDCI (e.g., with a DCI format 1_0 or DCI for 1_1) received on a PDCCH. Athree-bit PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI may indicate one of eightPUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource set. Based on the PUCCH resourceindicator, the UE may transmit the UCI (HARQ-ACK, CSI and/or SR) using aPUCCH resource indicated by the PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a wireless device 1502 incommunication with a base station 1504 in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure. The wireless device 1502 and base station 1504may be part of a mobile communication network, such as the mobilecommunication network 100 illustrated in FIG. 1A, the mobilecommunication network 150 illustrated in FIG. 1B, or any othercommunication network. Only one wireless device 1502 and one basestation 1504 are illustrated in FIG. 15 , but it will be understood thata mobile communication network may include more than one UE and/or morethan one base station, with the same or similar configuration as thoseshown in FIG. 15 .

The base station 1504 may connect the wireless device 1502 to a corenetwork (not shown) through radio communications over the air interface(or radio interface) 1506. The communication direction from the basestation 1504 to the wireless device 1502 over the air interface 1506 isknown as the downlink, and the communication direction from the wirelessdevice 1502 to the base station 1504 over the air interface is known asthe uplink. Downlink transmissions may be separated from uplinktransmissions using FDD, TDD, and/or some combination of the twoduplexing techniques.

In the downlink, data to be sent to the wireless device 1502 from thebase station 1504 may be provided to the processing system 1508 of thebase station 1504. The data may be provided to the processing system1508 by, for example, a core network. In the uplink, data to be sent tothe base station 1504 from the wireless device 1502 may be provided tothe processing system 1518 of the wireless device 1502. The processingsystem 1508 and the processing system 1518 may implement layer 3 andlayer 2 OSI functionality to process the data for transmission. Layer 2may include an SDAP layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, and a MAC layer,for example, with respect to FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, FIG. 3 , and FIG. 4A.Layer 3 may include an RRC layer as with respect to FIG. 2B.

After being processed by processing system 1508, the data to be sent tothe wireless device 1502 may be provided to a transmission processingsystem 1510 of base station 1504. Similarly, after being processed bythe processing system 1518, the data to be sent to base station 1504 maybe provided to a transmission processing system 1520 of the wirelessdevice 1502. The transmission processing system 1510 and thetransmission processing system 1520 may implement layer 1 OSIfunctionality. Layer 1 may include a PHY layer with respect to FIG. 2A,FIG. 2B, FIG. 3 , and FIG. 4A. For transmit processing, the PHY layermay perform, for example, forward error correction coding of transportchannels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping of transport channels tophysical channels, modulation of physical channel, multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) or multi-antenna processing, and/or the like.

At the base station 1504, a reception processing system 1512 may receivethe uplink transmission from the wireless device 1502. At the wirelessdevice 1502, a reception processing system 1522 may receive the downlinktransmission from base station 1504. The reception processing system1512 and the reception processing system 1522 may implement layer 1 OSIfunctionality. Layer 1 may include a PHY layer with respect to FIG. 2A,FIG. 2B, FIG. 3 , and FIG. 4A. For receive processing, the PHY layer mayperform, for example, error detection, forward error correctiondecoding, deinterleaving, demapping of transport channels to physicalchannels, demodulation of physical channels, MIMO or multi-antennaprocessing, and/or the like.

As shown in FIG. 15 , a wireless device 1502 and the base station 1504may include multiple antennas. The multiple antennas may be used toperform one or more MIMO or multi-antenna techniques, such as spatialmultiplexing (e.g., single-user MIMO or multi-user MIMO),transmit/receive diversity, and/or beamforming. In other examples, thewireless device 1502 and/or the base station 1504 may have a singleantenna.

The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may beassociated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readablemediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may beexecuted by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the presentapplication. Although not shown in FIG. 15 , the transmission processingsystem 1510, the transmission processing system 1520, the receptionprocessing system 1512, and/or the reception processing system 1522 maybe coupled to a memory (e.g., one or more non-transitory computerreadable mediums) storing computer program instructions or code that maybe executed to carry out one or more of their respectivefunctionalities.

The processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 maycomprise one or more controllers and/or one or more processors. The oneor more controllers and/or one or more processors may comprise, forexample, a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP),a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA) and/or other programmable logicdevice, discrete gate and/or transistor logic, discrete hardwarecomponents, an on-board unit, or any combination thereof. The processingsystem 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 may perform at least oneof signal coding/processing, data processing, power control,input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that may enablethe wireless device 1502 and the base station 1504 to operate in awireless environment.

The processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 may beconnected to one or more peripherals 1516 and one or more peripherals1526, respectively. The one or more peripherals 1516 and the one or moreperipherals 1526 may include software and/or hardware that providefeatures and/or functionalities, for example, a speaker, a microphone, akeypad, a display, a touchpad, a power source, a satellite transceiver,a universal serial bus (USB) port, a hands-free headset, a frequencymodulated (FM) radio unit, a media player, an Internet browser, anelectronic control unit (e.g., for a motor vehicle), and/or one or moresensors (e.g., an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a temperature sensor, aradar sensor, a lidar sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, a light sensor, acamera, and/or the like). The processing system 1508 and/or theprocessing system 1518 may receive user input data from and/or provideuser output data to the one or more peripherals 1516 and/or the one ormore peripherals 1526. The processing system 1518 in the wireless device1502 may receive power from a power source and/or may be configured todistribute the power to the other components in the wireless device1502. The power source may comprise one or more sources of power, forexample, a battery, a solar cell, a fuel cell, or any combinationthereof. The processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518may be connected to a GPS chipset 1517 and a GPS chipset 1527,respectively. The GPS chipset 1517 and the GPS chipset 1527 may beconfigured to provide geographic location information of the wirelessdevice 1502 and the base station 1504, respectively.

FIG. 16A illustrates an example structure for uplink transmission. Abaseband signal representing a physical uplink shared channel mayperform one or more functions. The one or more functions may comprise atleast one of: scrambling; modulation of scrambled bits to generatecomplex-valued symbols; mapping of the complex-valued modulation symbolsonto one or several transmission layers; transform precoding to generatecomplex-valued symbols; precoding of the complex-valued symbols; mappingof precoded complex-valued symbols to resource elements; generation ofcomplex-valued time-domain Single Carrier-Frequency Division MultipleAccess (SC-FDMA) or CP-OFDM signal for an antenna port; and/or the like.In an example, when transform precoding is enabled, a SC-FDMA signal foruplink transmission may be generated. In an example, when transformprecoding is not enabled, an CP-OFDM signal for uplink transmission maybe generated by FIG. 16A. These functions are illustrated as examplesand it is anticipated that other mechanisms may be implemented invarious embodiments.

FIG. 16B illustrates an example structure for modulation andup-conversion of a baseband signal to a carrier frequency. The basebandsignal may be a complex-valued SC-FDMA or CP-OFDM baseband signal for anantenna port and/or a complex-valued Physical Random Access Channel(PRACH) baseband signal. Filtering may be employed prior totransmission.

FIG. 16C illustrates an example structure for downlink transmissions. Abaseband signal representing a physical downlink channel may perform oneor more functions. The one or more functions may comprise: scrambling ofcoded bits in a codeword to be transmitted on a physical channel;modulation of scrambled bits to generate complex-valued modulationsymbols; mapping of the complex-valued modulation symbols onto one orseveral transmission layers; precoding of the complex-valued modulationsymbols on a layer for transmission on the antenna ports; mapping ofcomplex-valued modulation symbols for an antenna port to resourceelements; generation of complex-valued time-domain OFDM signal for anantenna port; and/or the like. These functions are illustrated asexamples and it is anticipated that other mechanisms may be implementedin various embodiments.

FIG. 16D illustrates another example structure for modulation andup-conversion of a baseband signal to a carrier frequency. The basebandsignal may be a complex-valued OFDM baseband signal for an antenna port.Filtering may be employed prior to transmission.

A wireless device may receive from a base station one or more messages(e.g. RRC messages) comprising configuration parameters of a pluralityof cells (e.g. primary cell, secondary cell). The wireless device maycommunicate with at least one base station (e.g. two or more basestations in dual-connectivity) via the plurality of cells. The one ormore messages (e.g. as a part of the configuration parameters) maycomprise parameters of physical, MAC, RLC, PCDP, SDAP, RRC layers forconfiguring the wireless device. For example, the configurationparameters may comprise parameters for configuring physical and MAClayer channels, bearers, etc. For example, the configuration parametersmay comprise parameters indicating values of timers for physical, MAC,RLC, PCDP, SDAP, RRC layers, and/or communication channels.

A timer may begin running once it is started and continue running untilit is stopped or until it expires. A timer may be started if it is notrunning or restarted if it is running. A timer may be associated with avalue (e.g. the timer may be started or restarted from a value or may bestarted from zero and expire once it reaches the value). The duration ofa timer may not be updated until the timer is stopped or expires (e.g.,due to BWP switching). A timer may be used to measure a timeperiod/window for a process. When the specification refers to animplementation and procedure related to one or more timers, it will beunderstood that there are multiple ways to implement the one or moretimers. For example, it will be understood that one or more of themultiple ways to implement a timer may be used to measure a timeperiod/window for the procedure. For example, a random access responsewindow timer may be used for measuring a window of time for receiving arandom access response. In an example, instead of starting and expiry ofa random access response window timer, the time difference between twotime stamps may be used. When a timer is restarted, a process formeasurement of time window may be restarted. Other exampleimplementations may be provided to restart a measurement of a timewindow.

FIGS. 17A-20 show example parameters for DeModulation Reference Signals(DMRS). A DMRS is a physical layer signal occupying specific resourceelements within the resource grid, and may provide a reference fordecoding a physical channel. For example, a PDSCH DMRS may occupyresource elements in a PDSCH resource block that permit a wirelessdevice to perform channel estimation as part of coherent demodulation.

A wireless may assume a DMRS sequence r(n) is defined by

${r(n)} = {{\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left( {1 - {2 \cdot {c\left( {2n} \right)}}} \right)} + {j\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left( {1 - {2 \cdot {c\left( {{2n} + 1} \right)}}} \right)}}$

where c(i) is a pseudo-random sequence. The pseudo-random sequencegenerator shall be initialized with c_(init)=(2¹⁷ (N_(symb)^(slot)n_(s,f) ^(μ)l+1)(2N_(ID) ^(n) ^(SCID) +1)+2N_(ID) ^(n) ^(SCID)n_(SCID))mod 2⁻ where 1 may be the OFDM symbol number within the slot,n_(s,f) ^(μ) may be the slot number within a frame, and N_(ID) ⁰, N_(ID)¹ ∈{0, 1, . . . , 65535} may be given by the higher-layer parametersscramblingID₀ and scramblingID₁, respectively, in theDMRS-DownlinkConfig IE if provided and the PDSCH is scheduled by PDCCHusing DCI format 1_1 with the CRC scrambled by C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI, orCS-RNTI. N_(ID) ⁰ ∈{0, 1, . . . , 65535} may be given by thehigher-layer parameter scramblingID₀ in the DMRS-DownlinkConfig IE ifprovided and the PDSCH is scheduled by PDCCH using DCI format 1_0 withthe CRC scrambled by C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI, or CS-RNTI. N_(ID) ^(n) ^(SCID)=N_(ID) ^(cell) otherwise. The quantity n_(SCID)∈{0, 1} may be given bythe DMRS sequence initialization field, in the DCI associated with thePDSCH transmission if DCI format 1_1 is used, otherwise n_(SCID)=0.

FIGS. 17A-17B show example parameters for PDSCH DMRS configurations oftype 1 and type 2, respectively. A wireless device may assume the PDSCHDMRS being mapped to physical resources according to configuration type1 or configuration type 2 based on a higher layer parameter dmrs-Type.To perform channel estimation, the wireless device needs to determine acode a_(k,l) ^((p,μ)). The code is based on a scaling factor β forconforming with transmission power requirements, frequency and timedomain codes w_(f) and w_(t), and a pseudorandom sequence r(m). Thefrequency and time domain codes w_(f) and w_(t) may be determined basedon the tables in FIGS. 19A-19B, where p represents an antenna port, λrepresents a code division multiplexing (CDM) group, and Δ is afrequency spacing between CDM groups. Using these tables, the frequencydomain code w_(f)(k′) and the time domain code w_(t)(l′) may bedetermined. The wireless device may assume the sequence r(m) is scaledby a factor β_(PDSCH) ^(DMRS) to conform with the transmission power andmapped to resource elements (k, l)_(p,μ) according to

a_(k, l)^((p, μ)) = β_(PDSCH)^(DMRS)w_(f)(k^(′))w_(t)(l^(′))r(2n + k^(′))$k = \left\{ \begin{matrix}{{4n} + {2k^{\prime}} + \Delta} & {{Configuration}\ {type}\ 1} \\{{6n} + k^{\prime} + \Delta} & {{Configuration}\ {type}\ 2}\end{matrix} \right.$ k^(′) = 0, 1 $l = {\overset{¯}{l} + l^{\prime}}$n = 0, 1, …

where w_(f)(k′), w_(t)(l′), and Δ may be given by tables in FIG. 19A andFIG. 19B. The reference point for k may be subcarrier 0 of thelowest-numbered resource block in CORESET 0 if the corresponding PDCCHis associated with CORESET 0 and Type0-PDCCH common search space and isaddressed to SI-RNTI. Otherwise, subcarrier 0 in common resource block0. The reference point for l and the position l₀ of the first DMRSsymbol may depend on the mapping type.

FIGS. 18-19 show example parameters for determining a DMRS position lbased on a mapping type (type A or type B) and a duration l_(d)determined based on the scheduled PDSCH resources in the slot. FIGS.18-19 respectively correspond to a DMRS with a maxLength parameter equalto one and a DMRS with a maxLength parameter equal to two. For PDSCHmapping type A, 1 may be defined relative to the start of the slot andl₀=3 if the higher-layer parameter dmrs-TypeA-Position is equal to‘pos3’ and l₀=2 otherwise. For PDSCH mapping type B, l may be definedrelative to the start of the scheduled PDSCH resources and l₀=0. Theposition(s) of the DMRS symbols may be given by l, duration l_(d) andaccording to tables in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19 .

For PDSCH mapping type A, l_(d) may be the duration between the firstOFDM symbol of the slot and the last OFDM symbol of the scheduled PDSCHresources in the slot. For PDSCH mapping type B, l_(d) may be the numberof OFDM symbols of the scheduled PDSCH resources. The casedmrs-AdditionalPosition equals to ‘pos3’ may be only supported whendmrs-TypeA-Position is equal to ‘pos2’. For PDSCH mapping type A,l_(d)=3 and l_(d)=4 symbols in tables in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19 may be onlyapplicable when dmrs-TypeA-Position is equal to ‘pos2’.

For PDSCH mapping type B, if the PDSCH duration l_(d) is 2, 4, or 7 OFDMsymbols for normal cyclic prefix or 2, 4, 6 OFDM symbols for extendedcyclic prefix, and the PDSCH allocation collides with resources reservedfor a search space set associated with a CORESET, l may be incrementedsuch that the first DMRS symbol occurs immediately after the CORESET andif the PDSCH duration l_(d) is 2 symbols, the wireless device may be notexpected to receive a DMRS symbol beyond the second symbol. If the PDSCHduration l_(d) is 4 symbols, the wireless device may be not expected toreceive a DMRS symbol beyond the third symbol. If the PDSCH durationl_(d) is 7 symbols for normal cyclic prefix or 6 symbols for extendedcyclic prefix, the wireless device may be not expected to receive thefirst DMRS beyond the fourth symbol, and if one additional single-symbolDMRS is configured, the wireless device may only expect the additionalDMRS to be transmitted on the 5th or 6th symbol when the front-loadedDMRS symbol is in the 1st or 2nd symbol, respectively, of the PDSCHduration, otherwise the UE should expect that the additional DMRS is nottransmitted. If the PDSCH duration l_(d) is 2 or 4 OFDM symbols, onlysingle-symbol DMRS may be supported.

FIG. 20 shows a relation between single- or double-symbol DMRS,time-domain index l′, and the supported antenna ports p. Single-symbolDMRS may be used if the higher-layer parameter maxLength in theDMRS-DownlinkConfig IE is not configured. Single-symbol or double-symbolDMRS may be determined by the associated DCI if the higher-layerparameter maxLength in the DMRS-DownlinkConfig IE is equal to ‘len2’.

FIGS. 21-24 show example diagrams illustrating DMRS example patternsbased on higher layer parameters (i.e., dmrs-Type,dmrs-AdditionalPosition, maxLength).

FIG. 21 shows an example pattern when dmrs-Type=1, maxLength=1, anddmrs-AdditionalPosition=1. The higher layer parameter dmrs-Type mayconfigure a reference signal type of a front-loaded DMRS (e.g.,Front-loaded DMRS) in frequency domain. For dmrs-Type=1, a base stationand/or a wireless device may transmit and receive comb type referencesignal structure (with 1 RE spacing between reference signals infrequency domain). The higher layer parameter maxLength may configure anumber of OFDM symbols of the front-loaded DMRS. When maxLength=1, oneOFDM symbol may be used for the front-loaded DMRS (e.g., Front-loadedDMRS). For maxLength=1, the wireless device and/or the base station maynot configure the higher layer parameter maxLength and may consider adefault value of the higher layer parameter maxLength as 1. WhenmaxLength=2 (not shown), two OFDM symbols may be used for front-loadedDMRS. The higher layer parameter maxLength with len2 may configure twoOFDM symbols for front-loaded DMRS. For DMRS transmission, the wirelessdevice and/or the base station may support additional DMRS. The wirelessand/or device may not support higher layer parameters such as dmrs-Typeand maxLength, but may use same configuration parameters of thefront-loaded DMRS for additional DMRS. The higher layer parameterAdditionalPosition configures a number of additional DMRS transmissionsthat will be transmitted in addition to the front-loaded DMRS. As shownin FIG. 21 , when dmrs-AdditionalPosition with pos1 is configured, oneadditional is used for DMRS transmission.

FIG. 22 shows an example pattern when dmrs-Type=1, maxLength=2, anddmrs-AdditionalPosition=0. Based on the higher layer parameters (i.e.,dmrs-Type=1, maxLength=2, and/or dmrs-AdditionalPosition=0), thewireless device and/or the base station may transmit and/or receive afront-loaded DMRS (e.g., Front-loaded DMRS) with comb type referencesignal structure and two OFDM symbols without additional DMRS.

FIG. 23 shows an example pattern when dmrs-Type=2, maxLength=1, anddmrs-AdditionalPosition=2. For dmrs-Type=2, a base station and/or awireless device may transmit and receive a CDM-type reference signalstructure having two consecutive REs in the frequency domain. WhenmaxLength=1, one OFDM symbol may be used for the front-loaded DMRS. FormaxLength=1, the wireless device and/or the base station may notconfigure the higher layer parameter maxLength and may consider adefault value of the higher layer parameter maxLength as 1. Whendmrs-AdditionalPosition with pos2 is configured, two additional groupsof DMRS are used for DMRS transmission.

The additional groups of DMRS shown in, for example, FIG. 23 may beconfigured in scenarios involving rapid channel variations (for example,wireless devices traveling at high speeds). In an example, up to threeadditional positions may be configured for DMRS. By contrast, the DMRSpattern shown in FIG. 22 has no additional groups, consisting solely ofa front-loaded group. In scenarios that do not involve rapid channelvariation, a front-loaded DMRS can improve latency by permitting thewireless device to perform a channel estimation without buffering anentire slot.

FIG. 24 shows an example pattern when dmrs-Type=2, maxLength=2, anddmrs-AdditionalPosition=1. Based on the higher layer parameters (i.e.,dmrs-Type=2, maxLength=2, and/or dmrs-AdditionalPosition=1), thewireless device and/or the base station may transmit and/or receive afront-loaded DMRS (e.g., Front-loaded DMRS) with CDM type referencesignal structure and two OFDM symbols with one additional DMRS.

FIGS. 25-28 shown Multiple DCI formats may be used for differentpurposes. DCI format 0_0 may be used for scheduling of PUSCH in onecell. DCI format 0_1 may be used for scheduling of PUSCH in one cell.

DCI format 1_0 may be used for scheduling of PDSCH in one cell. DCIformat 1_0 scrambled by C-RNTI or CS-RNTI or MCS-C-RNTI. may compriseidentifier for DCI formats, frequency domain resource assignment, randomaccess preamble index, UL/SUL indicator, SS/PBCH index, PRACH mask indexand/or reserved bits. DCI format 1_0 scrambled by P-RNTI may compriseshort messages indicator, short messages, frequency domain resourceassignment, time domain resource assignment, VRB-to-PRB mapping,modulation and coding scheme, TB scaling, and/or reserved bits.

DCI format 1_1 may be used for scheduling of PDSCH in one cell. DCIformat 1_1 scrambled by C-RNTI or CS-RNTI or MCS-C-RNTI may compriseidentifier for DCI formats, carrier indicator, bandwidth part indicator,frequency domain resource assignment, time domain resource assignment,VRB-to-PRB mapping, PRB bundling size indicator, rate matchingindicator, ZP CSI-RS trigger, MCS/NDI/RV for each transport block, HARQprocess number, downlink assignment index, TPC command for scheduledPUCCH, PUCCH resource indicator, PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timingindicator, Antenna ports of DMRS, transmission configuration indication,SRS request, CBG transmission information, CBG flushing out information,and/or DMRS sequence initialization.

DCI formats 1_1 may be monitored in multiple search spaces associatedwith multiple CORESETs in a BWP. In this case, zeros may be appendeduntil the payload size of the DCI formats 1_1 monitored in the multiplesearch spaces equal to the maximum payload size of the DCI format 1_1monitored in the multiple search spaces. Antenna port(s) in DCI format1_1 may indicate information comprising number of DMRS CDM group(s)without data, DMRS port(s) and/or Number of front-load symbols.

FIGS. 25-28 show example correspondences between an indicated antennaport and other information of importance to the wireless device. Inparticular, the indicated antenna port (“value”) may correspond to anumber of DMRS CDM group(s) without data, a number of DMRS port(s)and/or a number of front-load symbols.

FIG. 25 shows a table corresponding to DMRS values dmrs-Type=1 andmaxLength=1. In FIG. 25 , one of sixteen antenna ports may be indicated,requiring four bits.

FIG. 26 shows a table corresponding to DMRS values dmrs-Type=1 andmaxLength=2. In FIG. 26 , one of thirty-two antenna ports may beindicated, requiring five bits.

FIG. 27 shows a table corresponding to DMRS values dmrs-Type=2 andmaxLength=1. In FIG. 27 , one of thirty-two antenna ports may beindicated, requiring five bits.

FIG. 28 shows a table corresponding to DMRS values dmrs-Type=2 andmaxLength=2. In FIG. 28 , one of sixty-four antenna ports may beindicated requiring six bits.

The number of CDM groups without data of values 1, 2, and 3 may refer toCDM groups {0}, {0, 1}, and {0, 1, 2} respectively. The antenna ports{p₀, . . . , p_(v-1)} may be determined according to the ordering ofDMRS port(s) given by tables in FIG. 25 -FIG. 28 . If a wireless deviceis configured with dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeA anddmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeB, the bitwidth of this field may equalmax{x_(A), x_(B)}, where x_(A) is the “Antenna ports” bitwidth derivedaccording to dmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeA and x_(B) is the“Antenna ports” bitwidth derived according todmrs-DownlinkForPDSCH-MappingTypeB. A number of |x_(A)−x_(B)| zeros maybe padded in the MSB of this field, if the mapping type of the PDSCHcorresponds to the smaller value of x_(A) and x_(B).

In existing technologies, a base station may configure, via higher-layersignaling (e.g., RRC), DMRS parameters for each PDSCH mapping type(e.g., PDSCH mapping type A and B). The DMRS parameters may be selectedbased on current conditions and updated when necessary. In betweenupdates, DMRS structures and positions may be fixed in a PDSCH and/or aPUSCH. RRC signaling may carry large amounts of information, of whichDMRS parameters may be a small fraction. Moreover, RRC messages may besent and processed at long intervals (e.g., 10-100 ms).

In existing technologies, a wireless device may receive a PDSCH with upto 8 transmission layers from a base station. The base station may map ablock of vectors [x⁽⁰⁾(i) . . . x^((ν−1))(i)]^(T), i=0, 1, . . . ,M_(symb) ^(layer)−1 to antenna ports according to

$\begin{bmatrix}{y^{(p_{o})}(i)} \\ \vdots \\{y^{(p_{\upsilon - 1})}(i)}\end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix}{x^{(0)}(i)} \\ \vdots \\{x^{({\upsilon - 1})}(i)}\end{bmatrix}$

where i=0, 1, . . . , M_(symb) ^(ap)−1, M_(symb) ^(ap) is a number ofmodulation symbols to transmit per antenna port for a physical channeland is equal to a number of modulation symbols to transmit per layer fora physical channel M_(symb) ^(layer). The wireless device may determinea set of antenna ports {p₀, . . . , p_(ν-1)} where ν is a number oftransmission layers of PDSCH. The wireless device may determine thenumber of transmission layers of PDSCH. For example, when the basestation schedules PDSCH by DCI format 1_0, the number of transmissionlayers of PDSCH may be 1. When the base station schedules PDSCH by DCIformat 1_1, the number of transmission layers of PDSCH may be a numberof indicated DMRS ports by antenna port(s) field in DCI format 1_1. Forhigher layer configured PDSCH transmission, the base station mayconfigure a number of transmission layers in an RRC message.

In existing technologies, a base station may configure a maximum numberof transmission layers in an RRC message. If the number of transmissionlayers increases (or decreases), the wireless device may activate (ordeactivate) one or more antennas. The configured value may be a maximumnumber of transmission layers per wireless device and/or a maximumnumber of transmission layers per BWP. For example, the base station mayindicate a maximum number of transmission layers in a DCI, and thewireless device may activate or deactivate one or more antennas based onthe indicated value. For example, the base station may configure aplurality of BWPs and a maximum number of transmission layerscorresponding to each of the plurality of BWPs. Having configured theplurality of BWPs, the base station may transmit a DCI to activate oneof the plurality of BWPs. Based on the maximum number of transmissionlayers associated with the activated BWP, the wireless device mayactivate or deactivate one or more antennas.

FIG. 29 shows an example table that may be used to determine aconfigured DMRS ports based on a DCI. The base station may indicate DMRSports (based on, for example, the table in FIG. 29 ) independently ofthe configuration of a maximum number of transmission layers (describedin the previous paragraph). For example, a base station may indicate avalue ‘2’ to a wireless device. Based on the table, the wireless devicemay determine that DMRS ports ‘0’ and ‘1’ are configured. Other valuespotentially indicate different DMRS ports (for example, value ‘9’indicates DMRS ports ‘0’, ‘1’, ‘2’). In the example table of FIG. 29 ,there are sixteen values, and four bits may be necessary to indicate oneof the sixteen values. Other tables may include more than sixteen valuesand may require more than four bits. Due to the large number of DCIsbeing transmitted, it would be advantageous to reduce the size of DCIpayloads. Large DCI payloads may result in reduced system coverageand/or increased power consumption at the base station. Moreover,reduced system coverage may require more frequent handover by thewireless device.

Example embodiments implement an enhanced procedure that indicates DMRSantenna ports while reducing signaling overhead. A wireless device maybe configured with a maximum number of transmission layers. For example,the maximum number may be explicitly indicated by the base station orderived based on other information (for example, a current activebandwidth part for the wireless device). In accordance with the presentdisclosure, information relating to the maximum number of transmissionlayers can be leveraged to reduce signaling overhead (for example, byreducing the number of bits required to indicate DMRS antenna ports tothe wireless device). In an example, a base station and/or a wirelessdevice may dynamically activate or deactivate rows of a DMRS antennaport indication table based on the maximum number of transmissionlayers. The base station and/or the wireless device may activate rowscorresponding to a number of transmission layers smaller than or equalto the maximum number of transmission layers and/or deactivate rowscorresponding to a number of transmission layers greater than themaximum number of transmission layers. For example, if the maximumnumber of transmission layers is one, then any row in the table thatcorresponds to one or fewer transmission layers may be activated and anyrow in the table that corresponds to two or more transmission layers maybe deactivated. The activated rows may correspond to a subset ofcandidate values, wherein the subset may be smaller than the totalnumber of values in the table. A particular value from the smallersubset of candidate values may be indicated using a smaller number ofbits. Implementation of example embodiments may reduce signalingoverhead for indicating DMRS antenna port(s) used for PDSCHtransmissions. Example embodiments may increase a coverage of a basestation, reduce power consumption of a base station and/or wirelessdevice, and/or reduce handover frequency.

FIG. 30 is an example diagram illustrating DMRS antenna port indicationin accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 31illustrates an example flow chart for a wireless device. FIG. 32describes an example flow chart for a base station. As shown in FIG. 30, a base station may transmit one or more RRC messages, one or moreindicators, and one or more downlink transmissions (e.g., PDSCH #1and/or #2). In an example, the base station may transmit one or more RRCmessages to a wireless device. The messages may comprise DMRSconfiguration parameters (e.g., dmrs-Type, dmrs-additionalPosition,and/or maxLength). Based on the RRC messages, the base station and/orthe wireless device may determine one or more DMRS antenna port tables.The wireless device may receive one or more DCI (e.g., DCI #1 and/or DCI#2) comprising a maximum number of transmission layers and a DMRS portdetermination value. Based on the RRC messages, the wireless device maydetermine DMRS antenna port(s) to decode a PDSCH. For example, thewireless device may determine activated/deactivated values of thedetermined DMRS antenna port table and the DMRS antenna port(s) todecode a PDSCH among the activated values of the determined DMRS antennaport table. For example, the wireless device may determine a table ofthe one or more DMRS table based on the RRC messages and the number ofmaximum transmission layers. The wireless device may perform channelestimation(s) of the DMRS port(s) indicated by the DMRS portdetermination value. The channel estimation may enable the wirelessdevice to decode the PDSCH and receive the data transmitted in the oneor more downlink transmissions.

FIG. 33 is an example diagram illustrating activation and deactivationof DMRS values based on a maximum number of transmission layers in a BWPconfiguration in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.As shown in FIG. 33 , a wireless device may receive one or more RRCmessages indicating a plurality of BWPs from a base station. Each BWP ofthe plurality of BWPs may comprise a configuration indicating a maximumnumber of transmission layers. The messages may further indicate a DMRSantenna ports table comprising a plurality of values. For example, thewireless device may receive a plurality of DMRS configuration parameters(e.g., dmrs-Type, dmrs-additionalPosition, and/or maxLength). Based onthe plurality of DMRS configuration parameters, the wireless device maydetermine a table of the plurality of DMRS antenna port(s) tables (e.g.,FIGS. 25-28 ). The wireless device may receive a DCI (e.g., DCI #1 orDCI #2) comprising a BWP indicator (e.g., BWP A or BWP B) and/or a DMRSport determination value. Based on the BWP indicator, the wirelessdevice may determine a maximum number of transmission layers for theindicated BWP. The wireless device may determine one or more candidatevalues from the DMRS antenna ports table based on the maximum number oftransmission layers associated with the indicated BWP of the pluralityof BWPs. The wireless device may receive a PDSCH (e.g., PDSCH #1 orPDSCH #2) based on the DMRS port determination value and the one or morecandidate values.

FIG. 34 is an example diagram illustrating activation and deactivationof DMRS values based on a maximum number of transmission layers in a DCIin accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG. 34 , a wireless device may receive one or more RRC messagesindicating a DMRS antenna ports table comprising a plurality of values.For example, the wireless device may receive a plurality of DMRSconfiguration parameters (e.g., dmrs-Type, dmrs-additionalPosition,and/or maxLength). Based on the plurality of DMRS configurationparameters, the wireless device may determine a table of the pluralityof DMRS antenna port(s) tables (e.g., FIGS. 25-28 ). The wireless devicemay receive a DCI (e.g., DCI #1 or DCI #2) comprising a maximum numberof transmission layers and/or a DMRS port determination value. The DCIto indicate a maximum number of transmission layers may be for thewireless device or a group of wireless devices including the wirelessdevice. For example, a DCI to schedule PDSCH to the wireless device mayalso indicate the maximum number of transmission layers to the wirelessdevice. For example, a DCI to wake up the group of wireless devices mayindicate the maximum number of transmission layers to the group ofwireless devices. The wireless device may determine one or morecandidate values from the DMRS antenna ports table based on the maximumnumber of transmission layers in the. The wireless device may receive aPDSCH (e.g., PDSCH #1 or PDSCH #2) based on the DMRS port determinationvalue and the one or more candidate values.

FIG. 35 and FIG. 36 are example diagrams illustrating activation anddeactivation of DMRS values based on a DMRS antenna ports table and amaximum number of transmission layers in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure. For example, a base station may indicate amaximum number of transmission layers as 1 by using a BWP and/or a DCI.Based on the indicated maximum number of transmission layers (i.e., 1),the wireless device may determine activated or deactivated rows of theDMRS antenna ports table. For example, when the wireless device receivesRRC messages indicating DMRS configurations dmrs-Type=1 and maxLength=1,a DMRS antenna port(s) indication table in FIG. 25 may be used. As shownin FIG. 34 , the wireless device may determine activated/deactivatedvalues based on the DMRS table in FIG. 25 and the indicated number oftransmission layers (i.e., 1). When a number of transmission layers in arow is larger than the indicated maximum number of transmission layers,the wireless device may determine the row as deactivated. Otherwise, thewireless device may determine the row as activated. Based on theactivation/deactivation, the wireless device may determine DMRS antennaports table as shown in FIG. 36 . It should be noted that theapplication of the activation/deactivation may be applied to allpossible number of transmission layers (e.g., 1-8). In an example, theapplication of the activation/deactivation may be applied to specificlayers than a threshold. The wireless device and/or the base station mayuse predefined number or RRC configured number for the threshold.

FIG. 37A and FIG. 37B are example diagrams illustrating antenna port(s)indication field in DCI in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. As shown in FIG. 37A and FIG. 37B, for example, a basestation and a wireless device may require 4 bits to indicate antennaport(s) for DMRS before activation and deactivation based on a maximumnumber of transmission layers. The base station may indicate a maximumnumber of transmission layers to the wireless device. Based on themaximum number of transmission layers, the base station and the wirelessdevice may activate/deactivate rows of a DMRS port indication table.Based on the activation/deactivation, the base station and the wirelessdevice may require 3 bits to indicate antenna port(s) for DMRS. As shownin FIG. 37A, in an example, the base station and the wireless device maytransmit only 3 bits in DCI. As shown in FIG. 37B, in an example, thebase station and the wireless device may transmit 1 bit for otherinformation (e.g., transmission scheme, DMRS group indication and etc).

FIG. 38 is an example diagram illustrating determination of a DMRSantenna port(s) indication table based on a maximum number oftransmission layers in a BWP configuration in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 38 , a wirelessdevice may receive one or more RRC messages indicating a plurality ofBWPs from a base station. Each BWP of the plurality of BWPs may comprisea configuration indicating a maximum number of transmission layers. Themessages may further indicate a plurality of DMRS antenna ports tablesand each of the plurality of DMRS antenna port tables may comprise aplurality of values. For example, the wireless device may receive aplurality of DMRS configuration parameters (e.g., dmrs-Type,dmrs-additionalPosition, and/or maxLength). Based on the plurality ofDMRS configuration parameters, the wireless device may determine aplurality of DMRS antenna port(s) tables from predefined DMRS antennaport(s) tables. The wireless device may receive a DCI (e.g., DCI #1 orDCI #2) comprising a BWP indicator (e.g., BWP A or BWP B) and/or a DMRSport determination value. Based on the BWP indicator, the wirelessdevice may determine a maximum number of transmission layers for theindicated BWP. Based on the maximum number of transmission layers, thewireless device may determine a table of the plurality of DMRS antennaport(s) tables. The DMRS port determination value may indicate a valueof the plurality of values in the determined table to indicate DMRSantenna port(s) for PDSCH reception. The wireless device may receive aPDSCH (e.g., PDSCH #1 or PDSCH #2) based on the DMRS port determinationvalue and the determined table.

FIG. 39 is an example diagram illustrating determination of a DMRSantenna port(s) indication table based on a maximum number oftransmission layers in a DCI in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure. As shown in FIG. 39 , a wireless device may receiveone or more RRC messages indicating a plurality of DMRS antenna portstables and each of the plurality of DMRS antenna port tables maycomprise a plurality of values. For example, the wireless device mayreceive a plurality of DMRS configuration parameters (e.g., dmrs-Type,dmrs-additionalPosition, and/or maxLength). Based on the plurality ofDMRS configuration parameters, the wireless device may determine aplurality of DMRS antenna port(s) tables from predefined DMRS antennaport(s) tables. The wireless device may receive a DCI (e.g., DCI #1 orDCI #2) comprising a maximum number of transmission layers and/or a DMRSport determination value. The DCI to indicate a maximum number oftransmission layers may be for the wireless device or a group ofwireless devices including the wireless device. For example, a DCI toschedule PDSCH to the wireless device may also indicate the maximumnumber of transmission layers to the wireless device. For example, a DCIto wake up the group of wireless devices may indicate the maximum numberof transmission layers to the group of wireless devices. Based on themaximum number of transmission layers, the wireless device may determinea table of the plurality of DMRS antenna port(s) tables. The DMRS portdetermination value may indicate a value of the plurality of values inthe determined table to indicate DMRS antenna port(s) for PDSCHreception. The wireless device may receive a PDSCH (e.g., PDSCH #1 orPDSCH #2) based on the DMRS port determination value and the determinedtable.

FIG. 40A, FIG. 40B, FIG. 41A and FIG. 41B are example diagramsillustrating a determination of DMRS antenna port(s) indication tablebased on a maximum number of transmission layers in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. For example, when the wirelessdevice receives RRC messages indicating DMRS configurations dmrs-Type=1and maxLength=1, DMRS antenna port(s) indication table in FIG. 40A, FIG.40B, FIG. 41A, and/or FIG. 41B may be used. In an example, DMRS antennaport(s) tables may be defined per transmission layer. For example, thewireless device may determine FIG. 40A as a DMRS antenna port(s)indication table for PDSCH reception if the wireless device receives amaximum number of transmission layers as 1. For example, the wirelessdevice may determine FIG. 40B as a DMRS antenna port(s) indication tablefor PDSCH reception if the wireless device receives a maximum number oftransmission layers as 2. For example, the wireless device may determineFIG. 41A as a DMRS antenna port(s) indication table for PDSCH receptionif the wireless device receives a maximum number of transmission layersas 3. For example, the wireless device may determine FIG. 41B as a DMRSantenna port(s) indication table for PDSCH reception if the wirelessdevice receives a maximum number of transmission layers as 4. In anexample, DMRS antenna port(s) tables may be defined per one or moretransmission layers. For example, the wireless device may determine FIG.40A as a DMRS antenna port(s) indication table for PDSCH reception ifthe wireless device receives a maximum number of transmission layersas 1. For example, the wireless device may determine FIG. 40B as a DMRSantenna port(s) indication table for PDSCH reception if the wirelessdevice receives a maximum number of transmission layers from 2 to 4. Itshould be noted that the base station and/or the wireless device maysupport multiple groups of maximum number of transmission layers todetermine a DMRS antenna port(s) table based on the indicated maximumnumber of transmission layers.

A wireless device may receive one or more radio resource configuration(RRC) messages indicating a plurality of bandwidth parts (BWPs) and amaximum number of transmission layers corresponding to each of theplurality and a DMRS antenna ports table comprising a plurality ofvalues. The wireless device may receive a downlink control information(DCI) comprising a DMRS port determination value. The wireless devicemay determine one or more candidate values from the DMRS antenna portstable based on the maximum number of transmission layers associated withan active BWP of the plurality of BWPs. The wireless device may receivea physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) based on the DMRS portdetermination value and the one or more candidate values. The RRCmessages may further comprise a DMRS type. The RRC messages may furthercomprise an additional position of DMRS. The RRC messages may furthercomprise a maximum length of DMRS. The additional position of DMRS andthe maximum length of DMRS may further determine the one of antennaports table of DMRS. The DMRS type may comprise type 1. The DMRS typemay comprise type 2. The additional position of DMRS may comprise 0. Theadditional position of DMRS may comprise 1. The additional position ofDMRS may comprise 2. The additional position of DMRS may comprise 3. Themaximum length of DMRS may comprise 1. The maximum length of DMRS maycomprise 2. Size of the DMRS port determination value may be based onthe one or more candidate values from the DMRS antenna ports table.

A wireless device may receive one or more radio resource configuration(RRC) messages indicating a plurality of bandwidth parts (BWPs) and amaximum number of transmission layers corresponding to each of theplurality and a plurality of DMRS antenna ports tables. The wirelessdevice may receive a downlink control information (DCI) comprising aDMRS port determination value. The wireless device may determine a tableof the plurality of DMRS antenna port tables based on the maximum numberof transmission layers associated with an active BWP of the plurality ofBWPs. The wireless device may receive a physical downlink shared channel(PDSCH) based on the DMRS port determination value and the determinedtable. The RRC messages may further comprise a DMRS type. The RRCmessages may further comprise an additional position of DMRS. The RRCmessages may further comprise a maximum length of DMRS. The additionalposition of DMRS and the maximum length of DMRS may further determinethe one of antenna ports table of DMRS. The DMRS type may comprisetype 1. The DMRS type may comprise type 2. The additional position ofDMRS may comprise 0. The additional position of DMRS may comprise 1. Theadditional position of DMRS may comprise 2. The additional position ofDMRS may comprise 3. The maximum length of DMRS may comprise 1. Themaximum length of DMRS may comprise 2.

A wireless device may receive one or more radio resource configuration(RRC) messages indicating a DMRS antenna ports table. The wirelessdevice may receive one or more downlink control information (DCI)comprising one or more of a maximum number of transmission layers; and aDMRS port determination value. The wireless device may determine one ormore candidate values from the DMRS antenna ports table based on themaximum number of transmission layers. The wireless device may receive aphysical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) based on the DMRS portdetermination value and the one or more candidate values. The RRCmessages may further comprise a DMRS type. The RRC messages may furthercomprise an additional position of DMRS. The RRC messages may furthercomprise a maximum length of DMRS. The additional position of DMRS andthe maximum length of DMRS may further determine the one of antennaports table of DMRS. The DMRS type may comprise type 1. The DMRS typemay comprise type 2. The additional position of DMRS may comprise 0. Theadditional position of DMRS may comprise 1. The additional position ofDMRS may comprise 2. The additional position of DMRS may comprise 3. Themaximum length of DMRS may comprise 1. The maximum length of DMRS maycomprise 2. Size of the DMRS port determination value may be based onthe one or more candidate values from the DMRS antenna ports table.

A wireless device may receive a radio resource configuration (RRC)comprising a plurality of DMRS antenna ports tables. The wireless devicemay receive one or more downlink control information (DCI) comprisingone or more of a maximum number of transmission layers and a DMRS portdetermination value. The wireless device may determine one of antennaports table of DMRS based on the maximum layer. The wireless device mayreceive a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) based on the one ormore antenna ports of DMRS and the one of the plurality of DMRS antennaport tables. The RRC messages may further comprise a DMRS type. The RRCmessages may further comprise an additional position of DMRS. The RRCmessages may further comprise a maximum length of DMRS. The additionalposition of DMRS and the maximum length of DMRS may further determinethe one of antenna ports table of DMRS. The DMRS type may comprisetype 1. The DMRS type may comprise type 2. The additional position ofDMRS may comprise 0. The additional position of DMRS may comprise 1. Theadditional position of DMRS may comprise 2. The additional position ofDMRS may comprise 3. The maximum length of DMRS may comprise 1. Themaximum length of DMRS may comprise 2.

FIG. 42 illustrates a flowchart of a method for DMRS port indication asper an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure. At 4210, awireless device receives configuration parameters indicating a BWPassociated with a maximum number of transmission layers in a cell and aplurality of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports. At 4220, thewireless device receives a DCI comprising an antenna port indicationvalue. At 4230, the wireless device determines a subset of DMRS ports,from the plurality of DMRS ports, based on the maximum number oftransmission layers associated with the BWP. At 4240, the wirelessdevice receives, via the BWP, a transport block with one or more DMRSsports selected, based on the antenna port indication value, from thesubset of DMRS ports.

According to an example embodiment, the wireless device receives one ormore RRC messages comprising the configuration parameters of the cell,wherein the RRC messages further comprise a DMRS type associated withthe plurality of DMRS ports. The DMRS type comprises at least one of afirst DMRS type and a second DMRS type. The one or more RRC messagesfurther comprise a position indication for the plurality of DMRS ports.The position of DMRS indicates one or more symbol indexes of one or moreDMRS symbols for the plurality of DMRS ports in a slot.

According to an example embodiment, the wireless device receives, viathe BWP, the transport block with a number of transmission layers,wherein the number is less than or equal to the maximum number, inresponse to the BWP being associated with the maximum number oftransmission layers. The number is indicated in the DCI.

According to an example embodiment, the wireless device receives the DCIvia the BWP, wherein the DCI comprises downlink assignment parameters ofa PDSCH resource for transmission of a transport block.

According to an example embodiment, the one or more RRC messages furthercomprise a maximum length of a DMRS. The wireless device can determinethe subset of DMRS ports, from the plurality of DMRS ports, furtherbased on the position indication of DMRS and the maximum length of DMRS.

In an example embodiment, a wireless device may receive one or more RRCmessages indicating: a plurality of BWPs; a maximum number oftransmission layers corresponding to each of the plurality of the BWPs;and a plurality of DMRS antenna ports tables. The wireless device mayreceive a DCI comprising a DMRS port determination value. The wirelessdevice may determine a table of the plurality of DMRS antenna porttables based on the maximum number of transmission layers associatedwith an active BWP of the plurality of BWPs. The wireless device mayreceive a PDSCH based on the DMRS port determination value and thedetermined table.

In an example embodiment, a wireless device may receive one or more RRCmessages indicating: a number of transmission layers for a bandwidthpart (BWP) of a cell; and DMRS ports. The wireless device may receive aDCI scheduling a transport block and comprising an antenna portindication value. The wireless device may determine a subset of DMRSports, from the DMRS ports, based on the number of transmission layersof the BWP. The wireless device may select, based on the antenna portindication value, one or more DMRSs ports from the subset of DMRS ports.The wireless device may receive, via the BWP, the transport block withthe one or more DMRS ports.

In an example embodiment, a wireless device may receive one or more RRCmessages indicating: a BWP, of a cell, associated with a maximum numberof transmission layers; and a plurality of DMRS ports. The wirelessdevice may receive a DCI comprising an antenna port indication value.The wireless device may receive, via the BWP, a transport block with oneor more DMRSs ports selected, based on the antenna port indicationvalue, from a subset of the plurality of DMRS ports wherein the subsetof DMRS ports are determined based on the maximum number of transmissionlayers associated with the BWP.

In an example embodiment, a wireless device may receive one or more RRCmessages indicating: a plurality of BWPs and a maximum number oftransmission layers corresponding to each of the plurality; and a DMRSantenna ports table comprising a plurality of values. The wirelessdevice may receive a DCI comprising a DMRS port determination value. Thewireless device may determine one or more candidate values from the DMRSantenna ports table based on the maximum number of transmission layersassociated with an active BWP of the plurality of BWPs. The wirelessdevice may receive a PDSCH based on the DMRS port determination valueand the one or more candidate values.

In an example embodiment, a wireless device may receive one or more RRCmessages indicating a DMRS antenna ports table. The wireless device mayreceive a DCI comprising a maximum number of transmission layers and aDMRS port determination value. The wireless device may determine one ormore candidate values from the DMRS antenna ports table based on themaximum number of transmission layers. The wireless device may receive aPDSCH based on the DMRS port determination value and the one or morecandidate values.

In an example embodiment, a wireless device may receive one or more RRCmessages comprising a plurality of DMRS antenna ports tables. Thewireless device may receive a DCI comprising a maximum number oftransmission layers and a DMRS port determination value. The wirelessdevice may select one of antenna ports table of DMRS based on themaximum layer. The wireless device may receive a PDSCH based on the oneor more antenna ports of DMRS and the selected antenna ports table ofthe plurality of DMRS antenna ports tables.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: transmitting, by a basestation to a wireless device, configuration parameters indicating: abandwidth part (BWP), of a cell, associated with a maximum number oftransmission layers; and a plurality of demodulation reference signal(DMRS) ports; transmitting, to the wireless device, a downlink controlinformation comprising an antenna port indication value; determining asubset of DMRS ports, from the plurality of DMRS ports, based on themaximum number of transmission layers associated with the BWP;selecting, based on the antenna port indication value, one or more DMRSports from the subset of DMRS ports; and transmitting, to the wirelessdevice via the BWP, a transport block with the one or more selected DMRSports and with a number of transmission layers, wherein the number isless than or equal to the maximum number in response to the BWP beingassociated with the maximum number of transmission layers.
 2. The methodof claim 1, further comprising transmitting one or more radio resourcecontrol (RRC) messages comprising the configuration parameters of thecell, wherein the one or more RRC messages further comprise a DMRS typeassociated with the plurality of DMRS ports.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the DMRS type comprises at least one of: a first DMRS type; anda second DMRS type.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or moreRRC messages further comprise a position indication for the plurality ofDMRS ports.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the position indicationindicates one or more symbol indexes of one or more DMRS symbols for theplurality of DMRS ports in a slot.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein thenumber is indicated in the downlink control information.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the downlink control information is transmitted viathe BWP, and wherein the downlink control information comprises downlinkassignment parameters of a physical downlink shared channel resource forreception of the transport block.
 8. The method of claim 2, wherein theone or more RRC messages further comprise a maximum length of a DMRS. 9.The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more RRC messages furthercomprise a position indication for the plurality of DMRS ports, and themethod further comprises determining the subset of DMRS ports from theplurality of DMRS ports based on the position indication and the maximumlength of the DMRS.
 10. A base station comprising: one or moreprocessors; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by theone or more processors, cause the base station to: transmit, to awireless device, configuration parameters indicating: a bandwidth part(BWP), of a cell, associated with a maximum number of transmissionlayers; and a plurality of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports;transmit, to the wireless device, a downlink control informationcomprising an antenna port indication value; determine a subset of DMRSports, from the plurality of DMRS ports, based on the maximum number oftransmission layers associated with the BWP; select, based on theantenna port indication value, one or more DMRS ports from the subset ofDMRS ports; and transmit, to the wireless device via the BWP, atransport block with the one or more selected DMRS ports and with anumber of transmission layers, wherein the number is less than or equalto the maximum number in response to the BWP being associated with themaximum number of transmission layers.
 11. The base station of claim 10,wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors,further cause the base station to transmit one or more radio resourcecontrol (RRC) messages comprising the configuration parameters of thecell, wherein the one or more RRC messages further comprise a DMRS typeassociated with the plurality of DMRS ports.
 12. The base station ofclaim 11, wherein the DMRS type comprises at least one of: a first DMRStype; and a second DMRS type.
 13. The base station of claim 11, whereinthe one or more RRC messages further comprise a position indication forthe plurality of DMRS ports.
 14. The base station of claim 13, whereinthe position indication indicates one or more symbol indexes of one ormore DMRS symbols for the plurality of DMRS ports in a slot.
 15. Thebase station of claim 10, wherein the number is indicated in thedownlink control information.
 16. The base station of claim 10, whereinthe downlink control information is transmitted via the BWP, and whereinthe downlink control information comprises downlink assignmentparameters of a physical downlink shared channel resource for receptionof the transport block.
 17. The base station of claim 11, wherein theone or more RRC messages further comprise a maximum length of a DMRS.18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to: receive configuration parameters indicating: a bandwidthpart (BWP), of a cell, associated with a maximum number of transmissionlayers; and a plurality of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports;receive a downlink control information comprising an antenna portindication value; determine a subset of DMRS ports, from the pluralityof DMRS ports, based on the maximum number of transmission layersassociated with the BWP; select, based on the antenna port indicationvalue, one or more DMRS ports from the subset of DMRS ports; andreceive, via the BWP, a transport block with the one or more selectedDMRS ports and with a number of transmission layers, wherein the numberis less than or equal to the maximum number in response to the BWP beingassociated with the maximum number of transmission layers.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein theinstructions further cause the one or more processors to receive one ormore radio resource control (RRC) messages comprising the configurationparameters of the cell, wherein the one or more RRC messages furthercomprise a DMRS type associated with the plurality of DMRS ports. 20.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein theinstructions further cause the one or more processors to wherein thenumber is indicated in the downlink control information.